Invictus

by Raging Smurf

When I died, I never thought I'd get a second chance at life, let alone another chance as the protagonist of an anime. Getting another chance in a world with Snake pedos, heart thieves, and peepers with doomsday capabilities wasn't a part of the memo. But I ain't selling my life cheap, that's for damn sure. Male OC NarutoInsert. Chapters 1-4 prologue.

44. Finals

To those who kept saying 'RIP Ashina' or 'Too bad he didn't talk with Naruto'. What made you think Ashina isn't going to meet him?

Nim2000: Hadn't seen a review in a awhile from you, and thanks for the feedback. The review is a good critique, even if I wish I could refute the points made. I noticed a few of the things you mentioned in the review when I reread parts of the previous chapters. I'll probably be editing certain parts to tone down some portions that seemed repetitive, including multiple characters nonchalantly swearing. Certain writing habits of mine that aren't exactly good are noticable in my earlier chapters and when I didn't look closer at the dialogue in later ones, but I can still at least modify the annoying parts afterwards. I'll try some more moderation on some of the parts you pointed out, because I noticed that. Again, thanks for the feedback, and I liked that little part at the end of your review. Made me laugh.

Question to the readers: I'm definitely going to go back and spend a couple weeks polishing up some chapters once the Chunin exam arc is complete. Should I add a few omakes of Naruto interacting on a more relaxed basis with people? Examples would be like him showing Hinata how to bake, including cinnamon rolls. He could talk with Ino about different flowers and their historical meaning. He can spend time with Konohamaru and teach him a thing or two. It would flesh out some stuff without detracting from the plot and I can relax from all the plot progression and write Naruto as trying to actually be normal instead of constant training and conflict. And if I do, should I add them in the previous chapters or integrate them into new chapters? Adding them in earlier chapters will make some of the parts more digestible and not a large progression of angst without some more relaxed contrast.

I'd like to do that, but I'd like to hear some feedback on whether y'all would want that.

Anyway, here's the chapter.

---

Experiment with blood acquired from corpse of Uchiha Fuji. Uzumaki Ashina. Combining bloodline test.

Conclusion: Sample S shows a remarkable reaction when combined with Sample U.

In some cases, both samples clash and destroy one another. But more often than not, they melded together and formed a stronger chain, seemingly enhancing the prowess of the respective abilities inherent between the two. It is truly ironic that my blood properly bonded with an Uchiha blood sample, making it stronger than either until it degraded after a few weeks of being outside of the body.

This may be a possible reason why we, as teenagers and young adults, were warned to never fraternize with Uchiha. An offspring with the blood of both may be something unheard of in raw potential.

Perhaps there is more credence to the legends told by my grandfather's generation about us and the Senju being descended from the Rikudou Sennin.

And what is currently known and confirmed by my seal tests points to a few conclusions that may point to a shared ancestor.

Those with close blood, and similar chakra, can have seals and marks placed on them without the chakra of the host clashing, but this is something significantly more complicated.

A Yang dominant clan's blood mixing properly with a Yin dominant's. Almost sounds like one of those ridiculous novels from the civilian cities about 'Predestination'.

More study will be needed to determine why the Uchiha, Senju, and Uzumaki all have unrelated abilities when they potentially descend from one shared entity. And I dare not use people as study. Death and ignorance are preferable to being a butcher.

Sharingan, Adamantine chains, our stamina and chakra, and the Senju's ease of using Nature chakra without a foci like toad oil or snake venom, not to mention our longer lifespans that nobody else seems to have.

What on Earth are we descended from?

Edited for new Information: I have learned more information about the Senju's different abilities compared to ours. I had heard that Senju Hashirama's brother was an extremely bright lad. I began teaching him Fuinjutsu and picked his brain for ideas. Experience and knowledge goes both ways in a good apprenticeship.

Sealed report by Uzumaki Ashina, Uzumaki clan heir, Warring States period.

---

"Hail Forest, full of Grace. The Log is with thee," Ashina seemed to be praying some sort of last rites to himself before his will was to be extinguished, "Blessed art thou among Leaf nin and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, the Log. Holy Forest, mother of Log, pray for us Leaf nin now at the hour of deaths!"

Orochimaru silently watched as Uzumaki Ashina repeated himself once more. From how it sounded, Orochimaru wouldn't be surprised if it was an inside joke between Ashina and perhaps one or both of the Senju brothers.

"The Log has delivered many a Shinobi from death, Orochimaru." Ashina seemed to read his mind, "My ally is The Log, and a powerful ally it is."

"These are the moments where I realize why you didn't try to escape and attempt to warn Konoha of your resurrection," Orochimaru replied to the intentional madness of the man, "You are an agent of chaos. You relish in the disruption you can cause. You busied yourself in destroying my notes and experiments I kept hidden here for nearly a decade instead of breaking out of here."

"I am an out of tune instrument," Ashina said with a smile, "A broken string. All it takes for a perfect symphony, such as a grandiose plan years in the making, to come crashing into chaos is one discordant note. A single event, driving into a weak point like a spear, will shatter the perfect image in the mirror of the future."

"Even in death, you have a way with words." Orochimaru said with a flat tone.

"Words have the power to both destroy and heal," Ashina stated, looking wistful, "When words are both true and kind, they can change our world."

"Empty platitudes," Orochimaru remarked, growing bored with the conversation, "Have you come to a decision on telling me about your clan's secret ability? A secret perhaps only I know?"

Ashina snorted in derision.

"It is not my fault that you refuse to believe me when I say that ability is not of Uzumaki origin."

"I only encountered one person with them. I know it is likely transplantable."

"How strange," Ashina tilted his head, "I only encountered one person with them, and he wasn't an Uzumaki."

Orochimaru looked at Ashina's violet eyes and almost willed an answer out of him.

"Tell me who he is," Orochimaru whispered, "And I will kill only Sarutobi. I will not target any civilians and your grandchildren will still have Konoha to call home."

Ashina had the audacity to laugh at his promise.

"You cannot hope to convince me to part with such knowledge. You will never reach the level I reached as a shriveled old prune, even with a powerful dojutsu."

Ashina kept on speaking.

"The only man I knew with the power you keep yammering about was a useless old fool who didn't know when to stay dead." The Uzumaki growled, "So I drove a blade through his heart and cut off his head. The memory of his eyes dilating as the blood left his brain is something I wish I had the Sharingan to burn in my mind for eternity."

Orochimaru saw how Ashina acknowledged what he was saying, dangled information in front of him like a prime steak, then pulled it back to taunt him.

"It is a great pity that you will not help me, Ashina," Orochimaru said with a tone dripping false sadness, "Your grandchildren will be forced to die in that case."

Another mirthless chuckle came from the elder Uzumaki.

"You are threatening me with something I experienced a hundred fold, Orochimaru," Ashina said flatly, the malice in his voice flowing under the surface, "My wife is dead, my children are dead, and all of my grown grandchildren aside from Tsunade are dead. And I know you covet the knowledge my clan has, so my two grandchildren will still live."

Orochimaru decided to test out something, hopefully he could catch a flash of recognition.

"I will need to be more attentive to kill your grandson," Orochimaru mused, "I have discovered he can survive being beheaded."

The badly disguised shift in his stare clued Orochimaru in on the dead man's thoughts.

Ah, there it is. He realizes there's only one way for me to know that.

"You are going to die today," Ashina promised, a disturbing flatness to his voice,"Not tomorrow. Not decades from now. But today. I'll kill you the same way I killed the Jinchuriki's for the Nibi and Gobi and how I plan to kill Roshi." The man's eyes seemed to almost glow in the dark room. "I'm going rip you from your body and it will be very painful."

"Ah, but I am not a Jinchuriki." Orochimaru chuckled, his eyes glinting dangerously.

Ashina scoffed and shifted around, maintaining his gaze.

"Bijuu inhabit chakra networks foreign to them," Ashina's face shifted into a grin, the cracks of the reanimation opening a little wider, "It takes a proper touch to rip them out and I know precisely what you did to prolong your connection to the mortal plane."

In spite of knowing that he held all the power here, Orochimaru couldn't help but be unnerved by the certainty in Ashina's voice.

"Care to educate me on my youthful follies?" Orochimaru raised a brow.

"Gladly." Ashina smiled with all teeth.

"The body you inhabit, and all other bodies you switch to, will wither away from your soul and chakra contaminating the tenketsu of a foreign body." Ashina kept on smiling. "It doesn't matter what I tell you. The technique itself is flawed. The chakra network of people acts in a similar manner to blood types effecting the body's response to transfusions, but on a much more sensitive scale. You likely noticed that, but any precaution you took still doesn't change that bodies will reject the wooden horse you used to transport your soul into the body, being your chakra."

Orochimaru stared intently at Ashina, hanging on to every word.

"Your original body has undoubtedly either rotted or you destroyed it, meaning you don't have the chance to repair what you did to yourself."

"And how would you know of such a flaw in my technique?" Orochimaru prompted, eager to hear the flimsy reasoning Ashina had.

Chuckling rather viciously, Ashina gave him his answer.

"Because it's the same thing I theorized was possible over a hundred years ago that inspired Tobirama to create the Jutsu that allows us to speak right now."

"Oh, yes," Ashina continued at the expression of genuine surprise on Orochimaru's face, "You weren't exactly original when thinking of a physical vessel for the conscious self. Much of Tobirama's jutsu sprung from that very idea. Kage bunshin were to have a match to your own intellect in your bunshin, while the Hiraishin wasn't like that, but the Edo Tensei was created with a summoning jutsu as the basis."

What does he mean? Orochimaru kept running that question through his mind as he repeated what Ashina said about his attempts at tethering a soul to a body.

The note. Orochimaru realized, remembering the note left in Uzu.

"I assumed you only thought of a concept, not the validity of a possible working jutsu."

"Snooped in my office after I died, did you?" Ashina asked condescendingly, "I'm still surprised you even had the means to enter Uzu and get out without killing yourself."

"Spare me your scolding," Orochimaru said tiredly, wishing to get more information from Ashina, "You seem to not care about giving me information and critiques on my immortality, but you draw the line at something as absurd as 'snooping'."

Ashina shrugged again.

"I'm dead and look young, but I'm still ancient by even unconventional standards. I'm certain I've lived longer than the Sage of Six paths. Of course the old find something to complain about. It's what we do after we've killed our enemies and conquered everything life threw at us."

This entire conversation was beginning to be rather tiresome for Orochimaru, so he mentally tugged some on Ashina's tether, causing the man to scowl.

"Be an impatient kid diddler then," The man sneered, "But you made a key mistake in the likely avenue of study you did in switching bodies."

Giving him an unimpressed look, Ashina continued.

"Marking someone with a seal with your chakra in it to shift the target's chakra to be more like your's is probably what you did to stave off outright systemic rejection," Ashina explained coldly, but continued on, "But chakra and blood relation are inextricably linked, as I said before. You would require a certain kind of host to avoid rejection, even if you might be able to hold it off for several years with medical Ninjutsu."

Ashina had just explained exactly what happened with his replacement bodies, the issue already being noted by him. That was why the curse mark had to be placed on Sasuke. He planned on having Sasuke's body as a vessel for decades, possibly creating offspring as new hosts when the body began to weaken from age.

"A blood relative has similarities in chakra, even if they have separate or even opposing affinities. And chakra coils are more malleable and less prone to rejection at a very young age, combined with similar chakra preventing outright rejection. There's a reason why Jinchuriki are normally children at the time of sealing, and the chakra level of a Kage may as well be the same as a Bijuu when compared to some chakra networks. But you unfortunately don't have a young blood relative to switch into." Ashina said the last part mockingly, likely hoping to get a reaction.

The coincidence of him thinking of something that Ashina seemed to get to was a little surprising, but meant nothing.

When no reaction was made, Ashina seemed to give up.

"Do you not think this is overkill?" Ashina asked, over a hundred different chakra suppressant tags strapped to him while he was restrained to the table once more.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to break the tether in the few seconds it would take me to slip this on you as I summoned you and the Senju brothers." Orochimaru held up the tag to suppress the will of a reanimation, but at the cost of independent thought.

Ashina huffed and looked at the tag distastefully, his arms and legs restrained as well.

"Add a slight swirl on the outer ring of Kanji," Ashina looked at the tag, "It will keep my chakra from slipping out temporarily."

"As if I would trust that or anything at all you've said in this conversation." Orochimaru remarked, approaching the restrained Uzumaki.

"Suit yourself," He shrugged, "My chakra isn't like most."

Orochimaru, just a foot away from planting the tag in his skull, paused.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Yin chakra like mine is uncommon for an Uzumaki," Ashina shrugged, "It makes seals like that rather slippery when forced."

Orochimaru still had his hand hovering behind Ashina's head, and he smirked at the confirmation of his theory.

"That is why my curse mark didn't stick to your grandson. He is like you."

Orochimaru then pushed the seal in, causing Ashina to spasm before the dead Uzumaki could speak.

The reanimation eventually stopped moving and Orochimaru walked around to face the Uzukage, grinning when he saw the empty expression.

Deactivating the seals, the snake Sannin backed away and smiled as Ashina didn't resist at all.

Orochimaru reached into his pocket and pulled out a storage scroll, pulsing chakra into it to remove a Jonin uniform and tossed it towards Ashina.

"Your grandson is not a viable host." Orochimaru smirked, "So I will have another unsuitable one dispose of him."

Kimimaro was dying, but he still was a very dangerous and useful weapon for a good purpose.

It's a pity that you learned about some things from Itachi, Naruto-kun. Orochimaru lied to himself. The Akatsuki would have to accept the boy's death if Itachi was already outed as disloyal and may have possibly been leaking information.

It's not like this 'Tobi' individual or Pein would be able to discern a lie about Itachi or not.

Two birds with one stone.

The Sannin then exited the room to prepare for the event in a couple hours.

---

I woke up and squinted my eyes at the light pouring through my window, then glanced at my alarm.

Mr. Sun came up and smiled at me 30 minutes before I was supposed to wake up.

"Whatever." I muttered to myself, deciding to get out of the bed and get ready.

I stretched my arms and yawned, then I stood up. Before I began to walk towards the kitchen to fix breakfast for me and Rin, I noticed a few papers under my clock.

That's odd. I thought, thinking I had left out Tobirama's notes.

Once I grabbed the papers, I realized these weren't the notes.

One, they weren't in Tobirama's handwriting. And two, the paper was new.

The art of stealth and how to avoid dojutsu wielders. By Uzumaki Ashina.

I didn't recognize the notes, meaning they didn't exist in Hiruzen's possession when he gave us our grandfather's notes.

Jiraiya probably transcribed it and dropped it off to mess with me. I decided, setting them back down.

Knowing Jiraiya, he probably intentionally broke a few of the security seals in a way that I wouldn't be able to tell unless I painstakingly checked them all. I'll need to after the invasion.

I went to the bathroom and did my morning routine and took a shower, before drying myself off and heading to the kitchen.

About 15 minutes later, after I had breakfast started, Rin came in and rubbed her eyes, having just woken up.

"Morning." I said, still focused on the stove.

Rin mumbled a 'good morning' as well and sat down, trying to wake herself up.

After I finished up the breakfast, I slid a fresh plate to Rin, who started eating. I grabbed my own and sat on the other side of our small kitchen table, digging in as well.

"How is Karin?" I eventually asked, having been unable to talk with her since I had been training outside of the village with Jiraiya.

Rin swallowed her mouthful of food and wiped her mouth with a napkin, her violet eyes gazing at my blue.

"She's doing pretty well, even though she's in a hotel with an ANBU guard. She understands why she needs to be sort of hidden until the exams are over."

"That's good," I smiled, thinking of how close I was to being recognized as clan head, "Don't want Kusa to try taking her back."

Rin nodded and went back to eating, obviously enjoying the food.

After we finished eating, I put up the plates and went back to my room to get properly dressed, with all my gear stored in the secured closet.

After I got everything on, I went back towards the living room to wait on Rin. Once she came out ready, I asked a question that I was certain of the answer.

"Do we want to visit Karin before we meet up with Kakashi?" I asked, wanting to give our cousin some company before things went a little pear shaped.

"Yeah, for sure." Rin nodded, looking excited to see our cousin once more.

"Alright then." I turned and opened the door, the two of us walking out.

---

"Hi, Bear," I said, greeting the ANBU at the front of Karin's hotel room, but he was in plainclothes, "Fancy seeing you here."

"Hello, Uzumakis," Bear said to the two of us, sounding bored, "It's been a little slow since you stopped coming around for a couple weeks. But I gotta say, your sister is much nicer than you."

"Yeah. Yeah," I mock glared at him, while Rin snickered at the statement, "Can we be let in?"

Bear was one of the ANBU I liked. He, Neko, Kakashi, and Itachi were the most common ones to watch Rin and me when we were little, and Bear was a professional about his job.

"Sure," He shrugged, still not moving out of the way, "I just need confirmation that it's you."

I raised up my hand and pulsed some chakra into my fingers, a couple of thin golden blades coming from my fingertips.

Bear nodded and stepped aside. "Good enough."

I gave him a nod of thanks and I, with Rin right beside me, entered Karin's room.

I smiled when I saw a red blur rush towards us as the door opened.

"About time you two came here at the same time!" Karin said excitedly, pulling the two of us into a hug.

Rin and I returned the hug, the only three Uzumaki in the village now reunited once again.

Karin let go and gave me a piercing look with her red eyes, focusing on something.

"Your chakra feels different. It's lighter."

"I've decided to be a little more relaxed about things," I replied, "My Sensei basically told me to relax."

"Then it really worked," Karin smiled, looking relieved, "That bunshin of yours was scary."

I nodded along and leaned to my right to look behind my cousin, spotting several papers with a brush and pot of ink by the small table next to the bed.

"You been working on Fuinjutsu?" I asked, recognizing the paper.

"Rin brought some supplies over a few days ago," Karin nodded, walking towards her bed to get a few examples, "My kaasan said that our clan was full of Seal masters, but she didn't have any notes with her."

I smiled gratefully at Rin having the forethought to bring notes about Fuinjutsu for Karin. She had just a much of a right to that information as us.

"Did Rin tell you some stories about our clan?" I asked, sitting down on the foot of the bed.

Karin nodded happily and gestured for Rin to sit down as well, which she did.

"I can't believe the Uzukage was so strong! Do you think I'm related to him like you guys are?" Karin reminded me a lot of Rin when she was excited, and I loved every bit of it.

"I don't know," I said, glancing at Rin, "You might be. We'll just need to wait and find out."

The next half hour or so was Karin asking different things about Fuinjutsu, switching between asking Rin and me about some tips on simplifying certain seals and about how long the calligraphy lessons will take.

We eventually heard a knock on the door and both Karin and I pressed out our sensing, a weak signature like a civilian's was at the door while Bear was standing to the side.

"That's the hotel guy that brings food." Karin explained, hopping off the bed and going to get her breakfast.

I heard her thank the worker and came back with a bento box of food, steam rising up from it.

"I would've had them bring you guys food if I knew you were coming." She said apologetically, pulling the chopsticks that were taped to the outside of the box away.

"We already ate," Rin waved it off, glancing at the food then to me, "Naruto's food is better."

"I'm going to trust you," Karin said, taking a small bite of food and closing her eyes, "It better be at least half as good as this." The girl seemed to relax completely as she savored the taste of the food.

To be fair, the food Karin was eating smelled and looked delicious. But I was sure mine was better, and not because I was arrogant about it.

Karin happily munched on the food and I looked to Rin, then to Karin.

"Once the exams are over," I started, leaning back and setting my chin on my hand, "Are you two wanting to go shopping?"

"Hmm?" Karin asked, swallowing her food, "What?"

"Well," I explained, looking at the twin looks of curiosity from my two female relatives, "You might need some new outfits because you won't be going back to Kusa," I then turned to Rin, "And you grew a couple more inches, so you'll need new clothes."

Karin looked introspective, glancing at me and Rin.

"I would love that very much, Naruto," She looked almost ready to hug me again, "But I don't think the village will cover that like they have the hotel bill and my food."

Hiruzen had everything here paid for because she was part of a soon to be recognized clan, which gave him a lot of financial liberties in using funds delegated for such things.

"I make money on selling seals," I explained, "I have enough to pay for clothes. And it wouldn't matter anyway. You're family."

Karin did hug me this time.

"Thank you." The red haired girl mumbled, sniffling slightly.

She then backed away and gave me a mock serious look.

"I like red. So make sure as many clothes sold here are red."

"And I want orange." Rin added, poking my shoulder, "I don't get why I can't wear orange."

"There aren't rules about you wearing orange," I said confusedly, wondering where she got that idea from, "I just personally don't like orange."

Rin wore, at most, an orange shirt that was covered by her long sleeve shirt or jacket when it was cold or rainy.

Rin's face froze in surprise, slowly turning towards me.

"I thought orange wasn't allowed for Shinobi. The whole standing out thing."

"That's only ANBU," I said, still wondering where she got the idea from, "Kurenai doesn't wear anything that blends in and half the forces in Konoha don't wear discreet outfits."

The Henge was the reason why most Shinobi didn't bother with perfect uniformity. Only a small number of higher tier Konoha Shinobi wore clothes that were designed to blend in with the environment, me being one of the few.

"Well," Rin huffed, looking aggravated, "I didn't know that!"

I smiled at her overlooking that, but I put a hand on her shoulder to assure her.

"Don't worry. We can buy all the ugly orange shirts and jackets you want."

"It's not like red and black are better than yellow and orange." Rin said, tugging at her hair lightly for emphasis. "You'll look awful wearing orange, but I won't."

I laughed to myself at the truthfulness in what she said, about orange clashing horribly with my hair.

"I wear black most of the time because it and red are my favourite colours." I peered at her as I tilted my head. "You're a blonde. So it doesn't look bad."

"So your guy's favourite colours are black and orange?" Karin asked, looking between the two of us.

"Yep," Rin nodded, "Orange is bright and it's like the sunset. I don't know why Naruto likes black."

Two words, my little sister. I thought to myself amusedly. Darth. And Vader.

Style is awesome. The thing that makes or breaks a character is their style. An imposing figure in a mask is something else entirely. Black and red go together like blue and white.

And that saying about redheads not having a soul was just plain old irony.

"I know that grin," Rin said suspiciously, her eyes narrowed at me into violet slits, "You're thinking of something."

"I like black because of more than one reason," I shrugged, looking at Karin, "One is because of the mystery and how dark it is," I then adopted a wistful look, "But mostly from how it makes bright things look brighter, kind of like how the night sky makes the stars and moon appear. We can't see how beautiful they are without the darkness clashing with it."

"Huh," Rin said quietly, "I never thought of it like that."

I then turned to Karin and looked at her bento box.

"Can I have a bite?" I asked, "Just to see if it's good."

Karin shrugged and handed me the box.

"Just one."

I grabbed a sushi roll and popped it in my mouth, chewing it slowly.

"The roll is definitely better than mine." I admitted, enjoying the bite in it's flavour.

Karin took the box back and finished eating while Rin and I looked over the calligraphy practice Karin had been doing.

She was actually pretty decent for somebody that hadn't done any past seal work, even if it was just beginner stuff.

I waited til Karin finished her food when I popped a question.

"Are you wanting to get out and see the village some?" I asked, "I can have a kage bunshin as a decoy and I can slip out of here while you Henge as me if you want to look around until the finals."

"Won't that get us in trouble?" Rin asked, turning her head to look at the door where Bear was standing beside out in the hallway.

"Only if we get caught," I pointed out, "And it's not like it'll be several hours. 30 minutes tops, just so our cousin can get a better touch on the village." I then turned to Karin. "What do you say, cousin?" Me calling Karin that felt amazing. Cousin meant she was related. Ohona means family.

Karin seemed to enjoy the term as well, because she smiled and nodded, readjusting her glasses.

"Let's go then." She set her empty food box to the side. "Let me just Henge as you." She made a hand seal and a puff of smoke surrounded her, revealing a near perfect copy of me.

I squinted my eyes and looked at the disguise up and down, trying to check for a flaw.

"My hair has a couple blonde streaks right here," I gestured towards my temple for emphasis, "And the one side of your hair is still lying flat. Everything else is good."

Karin nodded and readjusted the Henge on her hair and gave me a thumbs up.

"Okay," I looked between Rin and Karin, "Rin and Rin with a K," I smiled when both rolled their eyes in sync at the admittedly stupid joke, "I do not look like that when I roll my eyes. But here's the plan."

---

"Did you really have to smack my head and call me a baka?" Karin frowned at Rin as we walked through the village, showing Karin different parts of importance.

"Bear would have been suspicious if I didn't do anything," Rin defended herself, "He knows Naruto is a baka."

"I can hear you." I said from a few yards ahead, looking around for another place to point out to Karin.

"That's the point." Rin countered, the two girls catching up when I stopped.

"This is the best BBQ place in all of Konoha," I pointed at Yakiniku Q, "Don't let Choji trick you into eating here if you promise to pay for his lunch. This place is kind of expensive, but worth every penny."

"Penny?" Karin asked.

"Ryo, sorry." I muttered, before moving along like nothing happened. "Ichiraku's ramen is probably too busy for us to swing by and say hi, but tell them you're our cousin and you'll probably get a complimentary bowl from them."

Karin was listening intently to me while glancing at the people milling about.

It was crowded, which was good for us since nobody was glaring at me and Rin. Granted, it could be possible people were already disliking us less, but I couldn't be sure.

Spotting an entourage that appeared to be lost, I signaled Rin I'd be a moment, trusting Rin would tell Karin what the signal meant.

I approached the group of 6 men and women and cleared my throat.

"Do you need help finding something?" I asked politely, pointing towards the symbol on my headband, "I can probably point you the right way."

The leader, I assume, a rather tall and slender man with greying black hair, looked at my forehead and back to my eyes with a smile on his face.

"I'm afraid we are unable to find the hotel we have reservations for. Do you happen to know where the Dancing Dragon is?"

The Dancing Dragon was right next to where Karin's hotel was. That hotel was for higher end customers.

"Yeah." I answered and gave him directions, which caused the man's smile to widen more so.

"Thank you, my boy," He inclined his head, calling his company by name to come over to him, "It's very much appreciated. Say," He started again, glancing at my headband and my sword strapped to my back, "Are you competing in the finals?"

"Yep." I nodded.

"Well, I wish you good luck. You look like a bright kid. I hope you don't face off against that Suna genin."

"Wouldn't dream of it." I lied easily, not wanting to worry the guy.

The man nodded kindly and walked away with his friends/acquaintances behind him.

"I wish you good fortune in your fight." The man then bid farewell with the others.

After they left, I walked back to my two family members and explained that they were lost and needed directions.

"That's nice." Rin said, glancing at the group.

"Yeah, but let's move on and show Karin a few more things. We'll need to get to Kakashi soon."

I took point again and pointed out a few more things, including when we went by the Hyuga compound and walked towards another familiar area.

"This is the hospital," I pointed at the building, "Don't be like me and you'll be just fine. The nurses are a nightmare."

"They were perfectly fine to me." Rin raised a brow, before snorting lightly.

Karin got quiet, which didn't go unnoticed by me.

"Karin, you alright?" I asked quietly.

"I sense something." She muttered, walking towards the alley by the hospital.

It wasn't the same hospital that I was attacked next to, so it wasn't an issue for me.

We got to the alley and I pressed out my own sensing, pausing when I felt something familiar.

"Wait! Karin!" I shouted, realizing she hadn't slowed down like I did.

Tora came slinking out from behind one of the trashcans and gazed lazily at us, eventually staring at Karin.

"Karin," Rin said gently, her eyes impossibly wide, just like mine were, "You need to back away very slowly. That cat is a demon."

Tora evidently understood that Rin was talking about her when she used the word 'demon' and the cat hissed at her, before slowly walking towards Karin.

"Karin." I was ready to rush towards her and kick the cat like I did last time, but what happened next had my thoughts grinding to a halt.

Tora tilted her head up towards Karin and started nuzzling her leg, the cat purring extremely loudly.

"Hi there, little Tora," Karin cooed, petting the cat, "Is her lost? Oh, you're such a fuzzy kitty cat."

Rin and I were standing there, completely silent as our cousin seemed to tame the single most vicious cat in existence.

"Come to Karin, Tora-chan." Karin picked Tora up and the cat didn't resist, looking perfectly content, hell, even purring louder.

Karin walked back towards us and Rin managed to gather herself first.

"That cat is a monster, but it likes you."

Tora started growling in her throat as she got closer to us, especially me, but she remained still in Karin's arms.

I blinked a few times and pinched myself to make sure I wasn't imagining it, but it was real.

"I expected to kick you again because I thought you were going to attack my cousin." I leaned towards the cat, sticking my tongue out at it.

Tora yowled and pawed at me, trying to reach my face, and hissed.

I hissed back, but much louder, causing her to pull her ears back and curl up towards Karin in fear.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Karin glared at me, her eyes narrowed dangerously, "You will not scare Tora-chan."

"She started it." I protested.

I decided it was a waste of time to convince Karin of the undisputable fact that Tora was a nightmare and we just walked out of the alley, another member to our troupe.

---

"How did you manage to tame Terrible Tora?" Kakashi asked incredulously, looking at the three of us.

"Uzumaki are awesome that way." Rin struck a pose, giggling after a few seconds, "Like how I did that, Naruto?" She kept giggling mischievously, "I pulled a you."

"Right." I deadpanned, glancing back at Kakashi.

Sasuke had showed up about 15 seconds after Kakashi did outside the arena, while I could feel Ino and Shikamaru inside already, and Hinata was closing in from behind us.

"Tora seems to love Karin," I said, "But still hates us." I emphasized my point by putting my hand near Tora's reach, which the feline predicably tried to paw at me.

"That's because you kicked her." Karin scolded me, holding Tora snug, "Tora-chan is just misunderstood."

"It clawed my face!" Sasuke cut in, defending Rin and me, "That cat is a menace."

"You probably act like Naruto," Karin shook her head, scratching Tora's ear with her hand, "So she thinks you're like him. A big meany."

Sasuke looked scandalized at being compared to me and voiced his opinion on the matter. "Please do not compare me to Naruto."

The fact that Sasuke stressed the please part meant he really did not like the comparison.

Kakashi stepped forward and gingerly reached for the cat, which obviously hissed at him as well.

"Karin-san," Kakashi said politely, "I'm sorry to say, but Tora doesn't like anyone."

"You feel like a dog," Karin looked up at him, "So she doesn't like you."

Karin obviously refused to believe that her little angel could be a devil, so Kakashi shrugged and made a Kage bunshin.

"Take her back to her hotel and swing by the pet store to get a litter box and some food," Kakashi instructed the clone, "It's not safe because of all the people here."

Safe for Tora, or for the people? I thought sarcastically, seeing Karin understand what Kakashi was saying.

"I'll see you guys later," She smiled, before turning towards Hinata, who just got here, "Sorry, Hinata, I'd love to say hi, but I need to take care of my little angel now." With that, Karin left with Kakashi's clone.

"Was," Hinata tried to say, looking genuinely confused, "Was that Tora in her arms?"

"Yes." I replied, still surprised by it even after I saw it with my own eyes throughout the whole ordeal, "The cat loves her."

Hinata activated her Byakugan and turned towards where Karin was, still looking confused.

"I don't see how," She whispered quietly, "She barely tolerated me when I petted her once."

Tora hated Rin and Sasuke, despised me, but tolerated Hinata in moderation. Probably because the cat could feel that she was a gentle soul or something.

"All three of my students are in the finals," Kakashi suddenly said proudly, "And you too," he added towards me almost like an after thought, which I snorted, "And I couldn't be more proud of you all."

"I can't believe I'm the only Jonin that has all three of mine in the finals," He repeated, his visible eye crinkled in a smile, "I trust that all of you will win your matches." He then turned to Rin and Sasuke, "If both of you don't win your matches, I'll be disappointed in the two of you."

"That's not that funny, Kakashi-sensei." Rin said flatly, but she was trying to hide her smile.

Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.

Kakashi straightened up and glanced at the area, then back to us. "It's about time we go in. Come on." He turned to walk towards the arena, the four of us following.

---

I was caught off guard when we entered the arena by the sound of the spectators all combined into a near deafening chorus when my hearing was better than average. I noticed Rin looked a little uncomfortable as well, and Sasuke noticed as well.

While Sasuke leaned towards Rin to talk with her, I saw the other genin that were going to compete, including my friends.

Ino likely sensed us because she turned around waved towards us and smiled, with Shikamaru turning when his blonde teammate did.

Shikamaru's chakra felt different. One, his reserves were larger. Not to Sasuke's level, but they were definitely higher and he looked better overall. More dangerous.

He obviously took preparing for Shino seriously.

We got towards the balcony that Asuma and his students were at and Ino rushed towards us while Shikamaru just walked.

"Nice to see you, Naruto," Ino smiled, having not seen me for a few weeks, "You guys ready?" She turned towards Team 7 with a huge smile.

"Ready as ever!" Rin declared, patting Sasuke rather forcefully on the shoulder, "Sasuke doesn't know what he's in for."

I looked towards Shikamaru and I raised my brow in question, which he got the hint.

"Does my chakra feel that different?" He asked seriously.

"Your chakra is more defined," I admitted, still focusing on it, "You finally got motivated to be a whole lot stronger, Shika."

Shikamaru scoffed and adjusted his posture.

"This whole month has been troublesome. My dad trained me harder than Gai does with his students."

I quietly absorbed that information, wondering how bad it really could be if Shikamaru wasn't exaggerating.

"Can't say it didn't pay off." I pointed out, the group of us walking towards where Kakashi met up with Asuma.

"Where's Lee?" I asked Kakashi, not seeing him even when I heard he was going to be the add on to fight the Kumo genin.

"Give it a few seconds." Kakashi said knowingly, already having his orange book out.

As if Kakashi could predict the future, I saw two twin blurs of green rush towards us, a small cloud of dust kicked up by their speed.

"Kakashi!" Gai shouted, wrapping an arm around Kakashi's shoulder, "Why must you read such Unyouthful things in front of such impressionable genin?"

Kakashi, in an impressive display of detachment, slowly looked up at Gai.

"Did you say something, Gai? I thought I heard you speak."

Gai practically fell apart at Kakashi saying that.

"Why must I be punished by your hip attitude, Kakashi?" He stepped away from his silver haired rival and muttered under his breath about Unyouthfulness.

"You doing good, Lee?" I asked, ignoring Gai and Kakashi.

"I am feeling amazing, Naruto-kun!" Lee nodded his head excitedly, "Gai-sensei has helped me prepare and I will win my match."

Based on what I'd seen from the Kumo genin, Lee had an edge because of his ridiculously high speed and strength for a genin.

"This final is ours for the taking," I couldn't help but feel pumped up from just being right next to Lee. His excitement tended to be contagious, "The Konoha rookies are gonna kick butt and take names."

I blinked when I felt a familiar chakra signature enter the arena, a rather violent kind.

"Gaara's here." I winced, causing everybody listening to turn to where I was looking.

Shino was on the other balcony with Kurenai, and I could see Kiba and Sakura in the stands.

"Where's Neji?" I asked Lee, realizing I didn't see him.

"He wished to prepare alone," He said sadly, "He wasn't pleased throughout the whole month."

I nodded my understanding, knowing that Neji likely wasn't pleased with getting a supposed handout from training with Gai. So he might have opted to train on his own.

I just hoped Hinata was able to beat him and get him to see reason. I don't see any other way he'll get his head screwed on straight without a really bad event happening.

Eventually, all of the Genin had arrived and I glanced up at the seats that housed the Kage.

Rasa, read Orochimaru, was up there with a bodyguard next to him whose chakra was extremely difficult to discern. Hiruzen was there, looking totally at ease, and to Hiruzen's left, over a foot taller than the Hokage was the Yondaime Raikage. Ay was scary, undoubtedly. His chakra was almost painful to feel from how much it crackled, and he was an all around juggernaut.

Next to Ay was B, and Jiraiya was standing behind Hiruzen, which made me feel like a massive weight was taken off my shoulders.

It was worth it. The letter worked. Jiraiya would be able to stop Hiruzen from being killed and all the toad Sannin had to do to get Ay and B to aid them was to say that Orochimaru was part of a group that wanted to capture tailed beasts.

I was pulled from my observations of the rather frightening guy when the proctor for the exams set off a weak exploding tag to garner everyone's attention.

A new proctor wasn't here. It was still Hayate, which given that Kabuto was outed as a traitor, it would make sense that he was laying low and probably didn't speak to Baki where they could be over heard.

Hayate announced that the competing genin were all here and that the first match would be between Rock Lee and Masoni Kaito, eliciting cheers from some of the Kumo crowd that came here.

I noticed that Yugito was standing next to Kaito and said something, before the teen went down to the center of the arena.

"Good luck, Lee," I encouraged the older boy, everyone else jumping in to give their support, "You got this."

Lee sniffed a bit and thanked everyone profusely for their support and jumped down to prepare to fight his opponent.

"How well do you think he will do?" Ino got close to me, her tone one of genuine curiosity.

"Lee can actually hurt me bad if I'm not extremely careful," I said, "And the Kumo kid can't take a hit like I can."

I then looked at Ino right before the fight was about to begin.

"Are you prepared to fight Temari?" I asked quietly, "I know she's a couple years older and is fairly skilled."

"I'm sure I can win," Ino said firmly, "And Hinata is gonna kick Neji into next week."

I'd heard from Rin that Hinata and Ino had been helping each other out over the last month, but not any specific details.

"What did you guys all work on?" I was curious about what they were planning on doing to hopefully win.

"Just wait and see." Ino laughed, not giving me an answer.

I shrugged and leaned on the balcony, watching as both Lee and his opponent looked ready to begin.

With a shout from Hayate, both fighters rushed towards each other, a blur to most people.

Lee landed several kicks on Kaito's forearms instantly, blurring to the side and flinging a few kunai at him.

Kaito drew a kunai off his own and shifted to the side, avoiding all but one that was deflected away from him with the kunai in his left hand.

Lee bolted straight at him the moment he threw his arm up to knock aside the kunai, raining down several more punches and kicks.

The Kumo genin started to look desperate and pulsed some lightning chakra into his forearms and hands to get Lee to slow down his attacks, but Lee immediately adapted and drove a kick into Kaito's ribs, letting his leg get shocked a little.

Kaito got knocked on to his back and was coughing, while Lee was testing his weight on the leg that got shocked.

"I still can't believe you're even faster," I heard Hinata to my left, having moved a little closer to me, "Lee-kun is so driven to be a great Shinobi."

"He fought and refused to believe everybody who said he would never amount to anything," I smiled softly, my respect for his self determinism knowing no limits, "He succeeded in spite of being called weak."

I heard Hinata's breath hitch at the last part, causing me to turn to look at her.

She was looking at me with gratitude, practically lighting up her face.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." She whispered, before turning to look back towards the fight.

The two had re-engaged and Lee had opened the first Gate and was slowly overwhelming his opponent, but Kaito wasn't going down without a fight. The Kumo genin grabbed ahold of Lee's arm as a punch sailed towards his face, his arm was shaking from holding it in place, and blasted lightning chakra rather recklessly to shock Lee. I call it reckless because he shocked himself as well.

I heard the two cry out in pain and both staggered away, Lee looking worse off.

Kaito was able to recover first and managed to make a few hand seals to make a lightning jutsu, which resulted in him pressing his hand to the ground and blasting lightning into the ground towards Lee.

Lee was barely able to move out of the way of it because of his legs spasming still, but he managed to sloppily dive to his left.

He had to pull himself up to prevent a lightning coated fist from punching his lights out when Kaito raced towards him to finish the fight.

Lee backpedaled away and flung a kunai with a smoke bomb attached to it at his feet, concealing him from sight.

I could sense his presence, and I chuckled when I realized what he was going to do.

"Hmm?" Hinata asked next to me.

"Use your eyes." I smiled, knowing the fight was going to end right here.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and she gasped softly when she saw Lee's chakra spasming in a certain way.

Lee didn't wait for the smoke to clear before he practically flew out of it, a green blur covered in chakra.

He opened two additional Gates and was blurring towards Kaito, who wasn't prepared.

A hurricane of blows rained down upon him and he couldn't stop them all, each hit seemingly harder than the last.

With a shout, Lee landed a perfect spinning kick to Kaito's temple, knocking him to the ground with an audible thud.

The stands, which had been shouting throughout the fight, cheered even louder at the display.

Kaito tried to get up, but he staggered before he even got to his knees and fell back down, raising his hand up in surrender.

"Masoni Kaito is unable to continue. The winner is Rock Lee!" Hayate shouted, being almost drowned out by even more cheering.

I clapped and cheered right alongside everybody else near me, and I saw the tears in Lee's eyes at his elation from winning.

Gai rushed down towards him and embraced Lee as the younger of the two closed the Gates he opened and staggered slightly.

---

"That kid's pretty fast," Ay remarked next to Hiruzen, looking thoughtful, "And he didn't use anything other than taijutsu."

"Rock Lee is a special case," Hiruzen replied kindly, "Maito Gai trained him to be a peerless taijutsu specialist that doesn't require Ninjutsu."

Hiruzen left out the part where Lee physically couldn't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu.

"A pity that the one Kumo genin in the finals was defeated without a single jutsu being thrown at him." Rasa said, almost keeping the slight taunting out of his voice.

"Hmn," Ay scoffed, "It says something that only two of your genin made it through when Konoha has 7 rookies in the finals."

"Gentlemen," Hiruzen interrupted, "We can trade barbs later. Let us continue to enjoy talented young genin show their skill."

The two other men quieted down while the Kazekage's bodyguard remained silent and still as a statue.

Hiruzen had no doubt it was Orochimaru, but he didn't know about the other opponent he and Jiraiya were uniquely equipped to face.

His hand ghosted towards the two seal tags that were tucked in his armour that was hidden beneath his robes.

"Two are for Hashirama and Tobirama," A voice he did not expect to hear again had said in his very house, having broken in and evaded all the security seals and ANBU, "And the other is specifically for Ashina."

The seal tags vaguely resembled the tags used to cancel out a summoning jutsu, but they had another dimension of complexity to them that was likely from the difference between the Edo Tensei and the summoning jutsu used by those with contracts.

If Jiraiya, who had the other tag, couldn't plant the tag on Ashina, he and the Senju brothers would raze Konoha to the ground before Orochimaru could be killed and the reanimations subdued. The way the Shodai and Nidaime fought were known by him, and Jiraiya was informed. But he didn't know how Ashina fought, only hearing ghost stories.

He refocused his thoughts and prepared for the next fight.

---

"Aburame Shino and Nara Shikamaru!" Hayate shouted their names, "Please come down!"

"Well," Ino said, glancing towards her teammate, "Good luck, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru nodded to her and then looked at the rest of us. "I just want this over with. I'm going to beat him as fast as I can so I can take a nap."

"Didn't you train constantly and actually get stronger?" Rin asked from my left, "I would've thought you'd be less lazy."

"That's like you getting tired of ramen, Rin." Sasuke commented, "Shikamaru is always lazy."

Rin rolled her eyes and ignored Sasuke, giving Shikamaru a wide smile.

"Good luck, kick his butt, be nice cuz he's a friend, yada yada." Rin gave her own version of wishing Shikamaru luck, before he turned to go towards the center.

"I don't want your choice of 'good luck'," Shikamaru glanced over his shoulder at me with a flat look, "It'll be troublesome."

"Be that way," I rolled my eyes, "But I don't deny it."

Shikamaru walked down the steps and Shino did from a different spot, both of them looking prepared.

I saw Shikamaru's mouth move in a way where I could tell he was wishing Shino luck in their match, while Shino was too covered up for me to tell, but I assume he did as well from the kind of guy he was.

Hayate announced that they could begin and Shino immediately flung several kunai with smoke bombs attached to them, before racing around the cloud to another position.

Shikamaru didn't stand still and made a hand seal as he rushed towards the cloud, his shadow bolstered slightly by the light being obscured by the smoke.

Shino retreated backwards when Shikamaru's shadow shot towards him from the smoke and he almost touched the wall by the time the range hit its max.

The Aburame heir lifted his hands up and a swarm of bugs flew towards Shikamaru as he rushed away to keep away from the Nara's shadow.

I could already tell how this was going to go. There would be tactical withdrawals and counters at long to medium range because Shino didn't have the chakra to shatter Shikamaru's grip like Rin and I did, while Shikamaru would be trying to avoid the insect swarms that would drain him dry of chakra.

Speaking of swarms, Shikamaru flung an explosive tag at the one swarm coming at him, the blast disrupting them and taking most of them out.

Shikamaru then went on to throw a few more kunai with exploding tags all across the ground, cratering the area around Shino as the boy kept avoiding them.

"Did Shikamaru ask you to make him some tags?" I asked Rin, confused by how many he had.

"I was about to ask you that." Rin said, also looking confused, "Unless his dad made sure he was stocked up on them."

I ran through possible reasons Shikamaru was doing this. He was definitely not wasting them. He was doing it intentionally.

Shino had started to time his dodging and was evading the kunai with ease, albeit with his jacket looking a little singed.

"You are wasting your kunai." Shino said, sounding unfazed "You will run out before you tire me."

Shikamaru ignored him and flung another kunai, Shino paying attention to it.

My eyes widened when I saw that Shikamaru dropped several more kunai behind himself, before he made a hand seal.

His shadow branched out and grabbed all the kunai and flung them at the same time, straight at Shino.

Shino wasn't able to avoid them all and got blasted into a crater from the concussive wave caused by the explosions.

Shikamaru rushed to take advantage while his shadow stayed stretched around him like a rather sinister looking octopus.

I felt Shino's chakra shudder from within the crater and a swarm of insects shot out, breaking into three different groups.

Shikamaru's shadow started lashing out to protect him, and another exploding tag was flung at one swarm, while Shino jumped out and charged Shikamaru.

Shikamaru obviously didn't expect that to happen because he didn't try and bind Shino, who got within arm's reach and engaged the Nara in taijutsu.

Despite my doubts, Shikamaru actually was much better in taijutsu compared to just a month ago, but Shino was still better.

Shino kept up a steady rhythm of trying to break Shikamaru's guard and I was able to feel faint traces of the Aburame's chakra on Shikamaru, meaning he was able to slip a few insects on him.

Shikamaru gritted his teeth and ducked under Shino's kick aimed at his head and was able to sweep the other boy's feet out from under him.

Shino recovered almost instantly, but Shikamaru made a hand seal and was able to bind Shino with his shadow right as the boy had a kunai out.

Shikamaru grinned in triumph, but his eyes widened when 'Shino' collapsed into a swarm of bugs.

Shikamaru, doing something uncharacteristically reckless, blindly Shunshined away from the swarm, tripping over one of the craters and hitting the ground hard.

Shino rose from another crater and staggered slightly, rubbing at his ears.

"I stayed in the crater while a bug clone fought you," He explained, his tone of voice off, "Those exploding tags are painful to my ears."

Shikamaru dusted himself off and looked at his right arm, a sizable gash from hitting the ground on his upper forearm. "I didn't expect the clone. A foolish oversight."

The two combatants stalked around each other, neither making a move.

Shikamaru scratched at his shoulder and then widened his eyes, pulling his shirt off, leaving only the mesh undershirt.

"You put some on me." He almost shouted, knocking the few insects off.

"I have drained a portion of your chakra," Shino said, a few more insects floating around him, "My swarm has started to deplete, but your chakra is even more so."

Shikamaru still had a decent amount of chakra, but the characteristic 'buzzing' feeling to an Aburame's chakra was less present in Shino.

He doesn't realize that Shikamaru has been working on his reserves.

The Nara had his characteristic expression of intense thinking, which wasn't a look you wanted to be facing against.

"Something you probably didn't expect," Shikamaru muttered, making 3 hand seals, "I don't just have my clan jutsu."

After the last seal was made, Shikamaru pressed his hands into the ground and forced his chakra into the Earth, cracking several parts leading to Shino.

Shino jumped to the side, avoiding the small fissure. The Aburame was smart enough to know that Shikamaru had something in mind, but wasn't sure. Hell, even I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

It wasn't until Shikamaru made a hand seal to manipulate his shadow that I realized what he was planning.

The cracks in the ground made a pathway for his shadow to lash out at Shino from more than one direction, meaning Shino was trapped like a fly in a spider's web.

Shikamaru didn't hesitate and manipulated his shadow and latched on to Shino right as the other boy desperately ordered the remaining swarm to shoot towards him and began trying to devour his chakra.

Shikamaru started shaking, but grinned as he forced Shino's hand to slowly raise up for him to surrender.

Eventually, Shino's hand went up and Hayate called the match in favour of Shikamaru, declaring him the winner.

Shikamaru immediately let Shino go and the insects flew back to Shino, while the Nara staggered and looked pale.

Shino went to Shikamaru and the two talked in hushed tones, while the people in the stadium cheered at the entertaining display.

Asuma and Kurenai both looked pleased at the performance of their students, but I could see Asuma looking a little smug at his student winning over Kurenai's.

"Looks like Shikamaru really did work at his clan jutsu," Ino said next to me, "He did really good."

I had no dissenting thoughts about that. Shikamaru set the bar high and managed to beat Shino, and Shino made him work for it.

---

"An impressive display of intellect by the Nara boy," Rasa said, "To think that he would have his opponent moving in a certain pattern, only to throw several kunai with his shadow, is commendable."

Hiruzen nodded, impressed by the progress made by the Nara heir.

"I believe your daughter is up now, Rasa." Hiruzen pointed out, hearing the Yamanaka heiress' name be called along with Sabaku no Temari.

"Indeed, she is." Rasa nodded, his tone flat.

Hiruzen glanced at the Raikage and Ay returned the look, the younger of the two men holding a cold look in his eyes.

---

Ino heard her name called and she bit her bottom lip lightly, trying to calm her nerves.

"You got this, Ino," Naruto smiled, looking totally relaxed, "You worked hard to get where you are."

Ino returned the smile and walked over to Hinata, surprising the girl by giving her a hug.

"Thanks for helping me out, Hinata," Ino said gratefully, "I'm sure you'll do well too."

"Thank you, Ino." Hinata replied softly, smiling at the gratitude.

Ino let go of the soft spoken Hyuga and ran down to the arena, spotting the older blonde girl from Suna.

"You look scary." Temari scoffed sarcastically, looking at her dismissively.

"At least I don't need a fan to use jutsu." Ino bit back, smirking when her opponent scowled.

"Are the contestants ready?" The proctor raised his voice to not be drowned out by the stands.

Ino adopted a taijutsu stance and slipped a few senbon laced with a weakened paralytic into her hand, ready to fight.

Temari tightened her grip on her war fan.

"Begin!" The cheers got louder.

Temari made the first move by dashing forward and leaping into the air, bringing down her fan onto Ino's head.

Ino sidestepped and tucked herself into a roll, flinging the senbon behind her as she avoided the attack that tore into where she was just at.

The Suna kunoichi swung her fan upward and knocked the senbon away from her, looking dismissive.

"You'll need to work harder than that to hit me." She said flatly.

"My friend doesn't need a fan to use wind jutsu!" Ino shouted, "She doesn't have a handicap like you!"

She needed to get Temari angered enough for her to possibly make her overlook something and give her an advantage.

Temari's eyes narrowed and she whipped up her fan, twisting it in a pattern to fire a wind jutsu at her.

Kamaitachi no Jutsu.

Ino was already running as the wind jutsu screeched towards her, knowing first hand how scary that stuff was when she saw Rin split trees in half.

The Yamanaka girl dove to the ground and used her chakra to stick to the ground with her hands and feet, avoiding most of the wind. She still felt the wind blowing her hair back, but she managed to hold on.

Ino leaped back to her feet and rushed towards Temari, making a single hand seal to use a jutsu to prevent the older blonde from swinging her fan.

Suiton: Mouth Shot.

A senbon shaped projectile was fired from her mouth at a much faster pace than she could have thrown a senbon or kunai, and it showed.

Temari tilted her fan and used the metal part to block the water, said projectile breaking against the fan with a loud ding.

By the time Temari shifted her fan out of her line of sight, Ino had closed the distance and drew a kunai, slashing towards her head.

The Suna kunoichi twisted her fan again to divert the slash, lashing out with a kick at Ino's waist once her kunai was shifted away. Ino spun out of the way of the kick, discreetly dropping a smoke bomb to the ground laced with a poison she had tirelessly built up an immunity to. Nothing particularly potent, but it would help her.

The two kunoichi were locked in a pattern of attacking and avoiding getting hit, neither gaining an advantage. Ino managed to duck under a swing from the fan aimed for her head and slid to the side, stomping on the smoke bomb she dropped.

The container of poison exploded as Ino stomped on it, covering the both of them in a greenish haze of misty poison.

Temari immediately started coughing and Ino took advantage of it, beginning another flurry of attacks.

She managed to land a cut to the girl's arm and sneaked in a punch to her face, but the older girl managed to retreat when a blind swing of her fan blasted Ino out of the poison.

Ino felt herself bounce twice against the ground before stopping and blinking from the shock.

Groaning from her back hitting the ground, Ino pulled herself up and felt a tickle at the back of her throat, making her cough lightly.

The poison was supposed to make breathing more difficult, and it still irritated her throat after Anko had fun helping her build up some immunity.

But Temari wouldn't have such resistance.

Another gust of wind blew the mist away, up and over the stadium to not be blown towards anybody.

Temari was now visible and she was obviously feeling the effects of the poison, hunched over and coughing.

The Suna girl glared at her after the latest coughing fit ended, her teal eyes trying to burn a hole in her head.

"You poisoned the both of us." She wheezed, reaching for a pouch strapped to her side.

Ino smirked and twirled a kunai with a small storage scroll attached to it.

"Don't drop anything you aren't immune to."

Temari gritted her teeth and pulled something from her pouch, that something turning out to be a greenish brown pill.

Without hesitation, her opponent popped it in her mouth and swallowed it dry, shivering in disgust like it tasted bad.

"You didn't think Suna of all villages wouldn't have something to treat most poisons?!" Temari smirked, looking mostly recovered after a short time.

Of course they have something to treat most poisons. Ino scowled. But the pill probably wouldn't completely get rid of the effects given that it was something that Anko helped her make.

Ino made a hand seal and flung 3 kunai, one of the kunai with a seal tag with poison mist in it designed to irritate the eyes. She timed the throw down to the wire and made four hand seals as fast as she could, casting a very weak Genjutsu on Temari to make her not see the tag attached to the one projectile.

Almost shouting with glee when Temari didn't try to avoid the kunai, opting to swing at them with her fan, Ino knew the Genjutsu worked. She triggered the tag and a cloud of light blue smoke billowed out, obscuring the Suna kunoichi from sight.

"Again?!" Ino heard Temari shout, but she paid no mind to it.

Tensing and trying to feel for Temari's chakra signature, Ino pin pointed precisely where she was and aimed a jutsu at her, knowing she might not get another opening.

Tiger, Ox, Tiger, Rat. Ino's thoughts matched the four seals she was trying to speed through.

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu.

Even if she wasn't a Ninjutsu monster like Naruto or Rin, she was proud of being able to say that she could at least use halfway decent Ninjutsu in a fight, for a genin.

She blasted a stream of water directly at where she could sense Temari, hoping to make contact.

Temari had likely heard it and sent a gust of wind at her to blast away the poison again and intercept the water.

Ino already could tell the two would cancel each other out. The wind jutsu was stronger than the water she managed to muster, but wind struggled to tear through something as weighty as water.

The two Jutsu struck and made an impressive boom for their size, water sloshing onto the ground and a lot of water vapour hanging around.

The Yamanaka heiress had rushed towards Temari, timing it so the two jutsu smashed into each other and she sprinted through the remnants of it, prepared to shift to taijutsu.

Ino got within range of Temari and the two clashed, a flurry of kicks and punches being traded and dodged.

From the squinting of her eyes and her slightly hesitant movements, the poison was leveling the playing field. Ino knew she wasn't the best at taijutsu, but she was nimble enough to avoid getting hit by the fan and should be able to match the older girl because of the poison.

A horizontal swing from Temari had Ino ducking under it, her left leg darting out towards the Suna girl's knee.

Temari avoided her leg getting bent in the wrong direction from the kick, but she didn't avoid it completely and she grunted in pain when her knee was struck.

Ino pressed the advantage and threw a few more punches at Temari, trying to knock the girl down.

Temari overextended a swing and Ino jumped over Temari's head and managed to wrap her leg around the other girl's head, her momentum bringing the two of them down.

It didn't go exactly as planned because Ino fell at a bad angle and struck her head against the ground as the two hit the ground, stars appearing in her vision.

Temari, who was struggling to pry Ino's leg off her neck, twisted and tried to pick up her fan, which was several feet away where she dropped it.

Ino held on, even if the muscles in her thigh screamed their protest.

Temari started making a strangled gasping noise and was turning red-faced, trying to not pass out. In a last resort, Temari grabbed a kunai on her side and blindly reached behind her and stabbed roughly where Ino's face was.

Ino almost didn't avoid getting stabbed in the face and pushed Temari's arm away, but she felt the kunai's edge sink into the ground right beside her head, a burning sensation coming from the side of her head.

Ino groaned from her head getting a cut, and her grip on Temari loosened for a fraction of a second.

The Suna girl pushed her leg off and leaned away, coughing and hacking. Ino leaned forward and tried to pull her into a headlock, but Temari jerked her head back violently, the back of her head crashing into Ino's face.

She barely bit down a scream when she felt pain lance through her nose, her eyes already watering in pain.

Temari promptly fell forward, taking in as much oxygen as she could.

The two both tried to recover from their respective circumstances before the other, all the while the crowd was cheering much louder during the taijutsu fight.

Ino blinked through her tears and spat the blood that was running from her nose off her mouth and formed a specific hand seal for her clan jutsu.

Shintenshin no Jutsu.

She felt herself shoot forward and she made contact with Temari, entering her consciousness.

Temari fought against her for several seconds, but Ino managed to wrestle her will into submission, albeit with a lot of difficulty.

She raised Temari's hand and proclaimed that she forfeited, and the proctor announced her as the winner.

An eruption of cheers occurred at the end of the match and she pulled herself back to her body, staggering from the pain of her badly abused nose hitting her again.

Temari walked towards her fan and picked it up, shooting Ino a calculating look.

"I wouldn't think a rookie genin would be that good."

"I'm not a regular genin." Ino shrugged, channeling the same detached tone of voice Shikamaru used.

Temari squinted her eyes and walked towards her, putting Ino on guard.

"I'm not going to bite," Temari said, gesturing towards her bloodshot eyes, "Do you have anything for this? And for whatever you used to mess with my breathing?"

Ino nodded and grabbed a small little bottle from her pouch, handing it to the other girl.

"A drop in each eye," She then gave Temari a piece of crushed up plants that were formed in a small wafer-like disc, "This'll help with the other one." Ino couldn't help but wince at how awful her voice sounded from her nose being completely blocked with blood.

Temari muttered her thanks as she dripped the bottle into one eye, followed by the next one, ending with her popping the antidote in her mouth. She then handed the bottle back.

"Thanks," The girl then turned to rejoin her siblings, but not before saying something that irked Ino immensely. "Your nose looks like a tomato and a chunk of your hair is missing."

The first one made her mad, but the second was horrifying.

Ino's eyes widened as she walked away, her hand going to the side of her head. She practically ran back to the others, ignoring the tiredness she felt in favor of making sure the Suna girl was lying.

She rushed past her Sensei and Shikamaru, making a beeline straight for Naruto.

"In-" Naruto began, but Ino cut the red haired boy off.

"Is a chunk of my hair missing?" She asked tightly, pointing at where the kunai had cut her.

Naruto grimaced at her, his eyes flicking to her nose and her head.

Don't look in a mirror. Don't look in a mirror. Ino kept telling herself, not wanting to think of how much blood was on the lower part of her face or how messed up her nose looked.

"It, uh," Naruto looked distinctly uncomfortable, "It doesn't. Look. Bad?" He finished questioningly, not being helpful.

Ino huffed and walked towards Rin, knowing the other blonde would at least be honest.

"How bad is it?" Ino demanded, her eyes narrowing when Rin laughed.

"You look awful. And your hair has a big chunk missing."

Ino balled her fists and fought the urge to start yelling, turning towards where the Suna team was.

"I can make sure your nose isn't broken." Rin added, wiggling her fingers.

"You're not touching my face." Ino snapped, backing away from the other girl who was grinning.

"Hinata," Naruto cut in, addressing the indigo haired girl, "You're up now."

Hinata, who had been listening in on the back and forth between her two friends, turned to Naruto with her eyes slightly widened.

"Sorry." She nearly squeaked, heading down to begin her match.

Naruto put his hand on her shoulder and said something that Ino didn't hear. Hinata then pulled something out of her pocket and gave it to Naruto, who gave the quiet girl a quick thank you and wished her luck.

Ino focused on what was in Naruto's hand and realized it was the ointment that Hinata made, the kind that did wonders in healing bruises and cuts faster.

"Do you need some help?" Naruto asked, lifting up the container for emphasis, "You'd need a mirror to clean yourself up."

Ino wanted to protest, but she thought better when Naruto kept his gaze on her, almost like he was challenging her to say no.

"Yes," She muttered, "I could use some help."

Naruto nodded and reached into his pocket, pulling out a storage scroll. He pressed his finger to it and pulled out a wash cloth, which he made wet by making a half seal to draw on some water from the air.

"Hold still," He cautioned as he used the wet rag to wipe the blood off her nose, before moving on to the cut beside her head.

For someone who was very good at killing and had a vindictive streak a country mile long, Naruto could be surprisingly gentle when he was helping someone, that someone being her right now.

Naruto was singing softly, words she couldn't understand as he finished cleaning away the blood off her face, tossing the used rag on the ground.

The boy then pulled a bandage out of a separate scroll and popped open the container of ointment, applying some to her cut.

She hissed in pain, and Naruto's face twitched at that.

"Sorry," He muttered, pressing the bandage to her head, "That should fix it. Good as new."

Her nose was still sore, but the cut on her head wasn't aching anymore and her face felt clean.

"Is my nose broken?" She asked quietly, dreading the answer. She didn't want anyone doing what Rin did to Sasuke repeatedly in the academy by pulling it back in place.

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing broken. Just a pretty bad nosebleed."

She then moved on to the scary thing.

"Was Rin telling the truth about my hair?" She asked.

"It's not that bad," Naruto replied, "I've had chunks of hair taken off when I said something particularly stupid to Anko."

Ino didn't doubt that at all.

"Thank you, Naruto." Ino eventually said, genuinely grateful for him helping her clean up.

"You're a friend." Naruto said simply, "I wasn't lying when I said all of you mean more to me than anything."

Naruto then got silent and leaned forward, watching the fight between Hinata and Neji commence.

---

Hinata's hands were shaking slightly and she felt jittery as she made her way down to the arena, the sound of the spectators not helping.

Focus, Hinata. She said to herself, continuing to walk to where her cousin was already waiting. You can do this.

She didn't like being at the center of attention. It made her feel exposed. And thousands of people had their eyes on her.

Out of curiosity, she activated her Byakugan with her eyes closed, looking at the different chakra networks and their chakra.

She could see Rin and Naruto like beacons, with only a few others that could match it. The box where the assorted Kages were at had six, and one of them looked strange, as in, looked very similar to Naruto's. Hinata may have confused it for her friend's at first glance, but it was different enough for her to tell because of how often she looked at Naruto and Rin's chakra.

Focusing on the Raikage's, she stopped shaking and was filled with a resolve that felt like a fire in her heart.

Neji was hurting because Kumo tried to take her. Her uncle, who she had mistakenly called Tousan more than once, was killed because of Kumo's greed. She would prove she was strong. She would prove to her father, Neji, her clan, Kumo, her friends, and above all else, herself, that she could do this.

Steeling herself, she opened her eyes and walked towards the center, noting the cold glare she received from Neji.

"Why must you force me to wait, Hinata-sama?" He asked icily, "This is a forgone conclusion. I would rather you forfeit now instead of proving you are weak after I defeat you."

"I don't care what you say, Neji-niisan," Hinata replied, knowing Neji hated being referred as that, "I will not give up because you wish for me to. Has my hard work not shown that I am capable? Lee, your own teammate, reached the finals because he didn't give up."

Hinata saw Neji's face darken, but she looked to her right when she heard the proctor speak.

"Are the two fighters ready?" He asked in a loud voice, before covering his mouth and coughing lightly.

Hinata responded by adopting her modified Juken stance, her left palm facing Neji as she shifted to her side.

Neji looked at her distastefully and shifted into the normal Juken stance, chakra already dancing around the edges of his fingers.

"Begin!"

The two activated their Byakugan and the fight commenced.

Neji charged towards her and the two clashed, the older of the two pushing on the offensive first.

Hinata pushed aside or dodged her cousin's attacks, knowing she couldn't afford to take a hit to a vital area.

For close to thirty seconds, the two were locked in a heated taijutsu bout, each of their chakra infused attacks being stopped by a deft redirection or dodge.

Neji was the first to make contact when his fingers brushed against Hinata's side, eliciting a slight gasp from the pain lighting up her left side.

Backing away, Hinata kept facing Neji, but focused her vision on the point of contact for a second.

The tenketsu point near that spot wasn't closed, but there was soft tissue damage from the hit. If she was able to get an opening, she could heal it with the nominal medical Ninjutsu she was capable of.

Centering herself, she focused on Neji and launched an offensive of her own, causing Neji to take a few steps back.

A jab at her face was avoided, but she could feel his fingers brush her hair from how close it was to hitting. She used her natural flexibility to block Neji's jab with his other hand as he started to pull back his one hand while bringing her leg up to kick at his elbow.

She made contact, but it wasn't a Juken infused hit. Either way, Neji hissed in pain from the hit to his arm joint and backed away, his face twisted in a look of anger.

---

"Oneesan is doing very well against Neji." Hanabi said from Hiashi's left.

Hiashi didn't pay mind to all the spectators, only paying mind to his two daughters.

"Yes," Hiashi said in acknowledgement, "She has made great improvement."

Hiashi didn't care where Hinata gained the inner strength and fortitude to strive to be a worthy heiress. He knew it wasn't from him, sadly. But he was pleased that both his daughters were capable and that neither were going to have their sibling relationship damaged by one being marked like his brother had.

"Can I please stay for the matches after this, Tousan?" She looked up at him, her eyes as wide as saucers in pleading, "I've been good. I've had good scores at the academy and I've progressed in my Juken skill."

If Hinata had her mother's kind nature, Hanabi had her deviousness. Hitomi truly was a kind woman, but she had no qualms about manipulating him into doing what she wanted him to.

And he hadn't minded.

"Hanabi," He looked down at her, fixing her with a mildly stern look, "I have told you no. You are here so you can see other genin in action, but you were withdrawn for the day to further your knowledge on how best to adapt the Juken in a situation."

Hiashi had initially been planning to personally tutor Hanabi instead of her enrolling in the academy for a year or two, but his youngest daughter had problems with relating to most children her age and time around others her age on a regular basis would rectify that.

His youngest seemed to fight the urge to roll her eyes, but eventually nodded, muttering under her breath.

She learned to try and talk back from Naruto. I'm sure of it.

His youngest daughter acting like how the Uzumaki boy did wasn't even categorized as a mild annoyance at this point, for something worse was possibly ahead.

For months, they knew Orochimaru was going to attack the village, but they weren't sure exactly when until this morning. The Hokage had been uncharacteristically pale at the final discussion among the clan heads until the finals began, and he told them someone had contacted him, telling him Orochimaru was going to launch his attack at the arena.

Hiashi could guess who it was after he, Inoichi, and Shikaku were debriefed about certain mysterious individual.

To keep up pretenses, he let Hanabi come along. But Ko, who was right behind him, was to immediately take Hanabi back to the compound afterwards and the lockdown on the area was to be enacted. Hiashi and several of his clansmen specifically would be aiding Konoha's Shinobi in slaying the traitorous Suna nin and Oto nin who infiltrated the village his brother died for while most of the other Hyuga Shinobi would protect the clan children during the attack. He still didn't trust Kumo.

Refocusing on his eldest and nephew fighting, he gazed at the impressive display of prowess from his clan.

---

Hinata heard Neji mutter an actual swear word under his breath. To think she had angered him enough to do that was shocking. He never vocalized his anger into profanity like that. It seemed like a Narutoish thing to do.

"I will not be denied victory." He sneered, shaking feeling back into his arm.

She'd landed a glancing hit on his arm, but she missed the tenketsu.

Hinata remained silent, the two a fair distance away.

Realizing she would grow physically fatigued if she tried to engage in a taijutsu fight of attrition, Hinata took advantage of having a fire affinity alongside an Uchiha teammate and made several hand seals, rushing forward as she felt the heat bubble up from her stomach.

Kaiton: Hosenka no Jutsu.

Around a half dozen small balls of fire flew from her mouth, tightly packed together, directly at Neji.

The Hyuga teen put some weight on his back leg and pulled chakra into his palm, shoving his arm out to send a blast at her Jutsu.

Neji had used the Vacuum Palm! He did it better than she could! And she had her father helping her for several weeks to manage it a few months back.

Hinata recovered from the surprise enough to use her chakra to guide two fireballs out of the way, but the rest were extinguished.

The two crashed right next to Neji, who avoided one entirely, but was clipped by the last one. Hinata saw his face register the burning feeling, but he started grabbing at his hair when the end of it ignited for a moment.

Despite the tenseness of the fight, Hinata couldn't help but giggle at how frantic Neji was in putting out the fire. He seemed almost as vain as Naruto about his hair.

Neji put it out, the mixture of laughter from the spectators causing his face to redden in anger.

The glare he levelled at her had her flinching.

Neji didn't even pause to think before sprinting at her, rage and wrath etched on his face.

She threw several shuriken and kunai at him to slow him down, but he knocked them aside with chakra coated fingers.

He got to her and aimed a strike straight at her heart, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

She avoided the hit by blocking it, but the wild jab at her left bicep struck and left a burning sensation snaking up to her shoulder.

Neji was less composed, but it seemed to make him more dangerous. She saw openings in his guard, but he was proving to be just a little bit faster than her, and physically stronger.

She counted 5 hits that got through to her, two closing a tenketsu in her shoulder and her side. She'd managed to hit him twice, but her thoughts had been wild and focusing on one horrifying realization.

He tried to kill me.

The hit aimed at her heart could have killed her. She knew what a Juken strike would do to a person's heart. She had seen a man's heart practically disappear when she killed him during the ambush near Nami.

Did Neji truly hate her enough to do that, or was it because he couldn't lash out at the world?

That last thought left her angry. How dare Neji do that? She loved him as family, and he tried to kill her!

"Forgive, but don't forget." She murmured to herself, fixing Neji with a matching glare of anger.

Neji ignored the look and looked ready to re-engage, but Hinata had other plans.

She'd reconsidered using the eye irritant on its own, realizing her cousin was even more vulnerable, as a Hyuga, to the irritant. The two could shut their eyes and be fine fighting in the cloud, but that was when they had their Byakugan activated.

Rin had made the storage tags for her and Ino, but Hinata had later asked for a flash tag as well. Two guesses why.

Pulling one of two kunai that had tags on them from her holster, Hinata gave Neji an expression that matched the coldness in her voice.

"Try fighting without your eyes, Neji."

She flung the kunai.

Neji obviously paid attention to the fight with Ino and closed his eyes, keeping his Byakugan active to see the kunai through his eyelids. He knocked it aside with the back of his hand and stepped to the side, out the cloud.

Before Neji could make an insulting comment, Hinata flung her other kunai, making a hand seal as Neji reached out to knock it aside.

Hinata had shut off her Byakugan and closed her eyes at the last second, preventing her from being hurt.

The flash tag went off and Neji almost fell to the ground holding his head, groaning loudly.

Hinata rushed forward and relentlessly attacked Neji, who was trying to blink the colour out of his eyes from the flash tag.

One hit struck his stomach, causing him to lurch forward. A blind jab from him was ducked by her and her index and middle finger, laced with her chakra, struck the bottom of his arm, directly closing the main tenketsu in his arm.

"No!" He shouted in both anger and pain, continuing to try and fight.

Hinata promptly stopped her assault, dashing away and weaving her hand to prepare for one of her clan's techniques.

Hakke Kusho. (Vacuum Palm).

Even if it wasn't as potent as the adults in their clan, her's struck Neji in the chest, the concentrated air blasting him back several feet. The soft 'oof' sound he made when he fell against the hard earth and had the air knocked from his lungs was audible to her over the constant cheering from the crowd.

Hinata stalked towards him, trying to control the anger she had for the cousin she tried to help aiming a hit to her heart.

But as she got closer to him, she remembered how Neji stopped being cheerful after his father died. He was quiet after he had the seal placed on him, but it wasn't until Uncle Hizashi died where Neji became cold and harsh to her.

Everybody hurts in their own ways. Naruto had said to her. I would know. He added quietly.

Walking towards Neji, who had picked himself up, albeit with some difficulty, Hinata took a deep breath and prepared herself to continue fighting.

"Why must I always be trapped?" Neji asked quietly, his hand clenching and unclenching. "Your father prepared you for the finals. He prepared you to fight me. I didn't have a dedicated trainer because Gai-sensei was helping Lee." His face was tight with either anger or resignment. "It seems it's my fate to lose to you."

"Neji," Hinata replied gently, trying to reach out to him emotionally, "My father didn't prepare me. I prepared with Kurenai-san's help. I never saw you prepare on your own."

"I," Neji said, looking shocked by what she just said, "No. That's not possible. You were prepared to fight me."

"I prepared to fight," Hinata replied, "But not to fight my cousin."

Hinata sucked in some air, exhaling slowly. She knew her father was probably reading the words being said with his Byakugan. She just hoped she could stave off her anxiety.

"You're not my nii-san," Hinata said sadly, "You're something cold and twisted. Where is my cousin who helped me when I struggled? Where is my cousin who called me Imouto on my birthday? Where is he?"

"He died with my Tousan!" Neji almost yelled, balling his fists, "My father died for your sake. I have no one because of you. I am cursed to sacrifice everything for the Main Branch. It is my fate."

"You're wrong, Neji," Hinata refused to let her cousin continue to hurt, "You have your uncle. You have me. You have Hanabi. You have your teammates and your Jonin Sensei. You're only alone because you choose to feel alone."

Hinata was internally terrified that she was going to say the wrong thing, or stutter at the worst time, but kept almost praying to not.

"I'm never going to give up. I'm going to keep fighting until you see that you're wrong. I promised I'd bring our Houses back together and I will succeed." Hinata said with all of her conviction in the last three words.

Neji was impossibly tense, like a spring ready to break. Her older cousin took a shuddering breath and slowly unclenched his fists and sighed.

"I wish I could believe you," He muttered, activating his Byakugan again, "But I don't."

Neji then charged towards her, moving much slower from the hits he took.

Hinata did not remain still, engaging her cousin with an intensity that defied her shy demeanor and lithe build.

Neji landed a glancing hit to her arm, but she landed two of her own.

Her cousin was conflicted about what she said, making his composure weaker than it should have been. Her fingers struck him in the ribs and he fell to one knee, coughing profusely.

"Neji," She begged him, backing away, "Please, concede. I don't want to hurt you."

"Not yet," He almost seemed to be saying it to himself, "I can't lose. I won't."

Hinata closed her eyes and focused on Neji's chakra network, not wanting to see his face at what she was going to do.

She dashed towards him, removing the few feet of distance between them, and jabbed at his tenketsu located in his forearms, ducking under his attack by having her upper body horizontal to the ground, jabbing at his thigh in a nerve cluster.

Had Neji expected Hinata to prepare to use their Dojutsu against him like Naruto and Rin would have, if he had taken her as a serious threat from the beginning, and if he hadn't had doubts about the choice he made about his belief in fate governing reality, the fight would have continued to be a stalemate until he slowly took the edge because of his physical edge in strength and creativity in using the Juken.

But fights had been turned by less.

Hinata was using her flexibility to even out the strength difference between the two, while Neji's slight speed advantage had been nullified by her hitting his dominant arm twice and a hit to his thigh.

Three jabs aimed at her were avoided by her bending back out of range, her hips almost hurting from her twisting to rebalance herself.

I have to knock him to the ground or I'm going to lose from exhaustion. She thought to herself, her breath starting to get too short for comfort combined with the ache in her limbs.

Hinata drove her leg towards Neji's head, which was blocked by his arm, but she spun with the momentum and sent her other leg at the same arm, pushing it aside and making contact with the side of his jaw, knocking him to his knee again.

The Hyuga heiress rushed forward again, jabbing and twirling at Neji, dancing around him on the balls of her feet to get an opening. That opening came when he lashed out at her in frustration and she kicked him in the head with the top of her foot. The feeling of his forehead against her foot caused her to wince from both the pain and the sound.

Neji collapsed on his back, blinking repeatedly and raising his arm out blindly.

Hinata kneeled next to him, a kunai pulled and the point aimed at his face.

"Please, nii-san." Hinata implored, her voice having as much softness as she could muster.

Neji looked completely lost, seemingly confused at how he was at his soft-spoken cousin's mercy.

"I," Neji tried to say, but his voice failed him. He eventually swallowed and spoke in a thick tone.

"I concede."

"Hyuga Neji concedes the match." The proctor proclaimed, "The winner is Hyuga Hinata!"

Hinata didn't pay mind to the near deafening crowd. She only cared about her cousin. She thought that defeating him would take a great burden off of her, that it would prove that she was worth something.

But all she could see was that she hurt her cousin.

"Nej-" She reached out to him, but he cut her off.

"No," He said firmly, rolling to his side to push himself up, "I don't want to talk."

Hinata watched as he was helped off the arena by some Chunin, while she walked back to her team.

Her friends all had looks of pride on their faces, even Sasuke was smiling openly.

Rin was the first to pull her into a hug, the energetic blonde practically crushing her in excitement.

"I knew you could do it, 'Nata!" She shortened her name again, squeezing tighter.

"Eep," Hinata squeaked, feeling lightheaded from her friend's affections, "Rin. Crushing. Me. Stop."

"Oh, sorry," Rin said sheepishly, letting her go, "I'm just excited you won."

"You used the poison as a ploy," Naruto looked impressed, smiling at her rather brightly, "And followed it up with a flash tag. That's how you win. Think smart and think ahead." Naruto then tilted his head in concern, his brow furrowed. "How many of your tenketsu are closed?"

Of course Naruto could tell there were slight disruptions in her chakra network from a few tenketsu being closed.

"A few." She answered honestly, gingerly massaging a sore spot.

Naruto returned her ointment to her, which she took gratefully.

"You'll be better at applying it," He said, "I can't exactly see where the hits are at and I'm not as good at judging what's too much or little."

Hinata nodded and began dabbing some on the Juken hits on her arms, hoping to sooth the ache some.

---

"The Byakugan in action is very impressive." Ay remarked, glancing at the winner of the latest match.

"To think that the young lady who won is the heiress," Jiraiya said coolly, "Interesting, Raikage-sama, isn't it?"

Hiruzen clicked his tongue in annoyance, unamused by the Kage bunshin's impertinence.

Jiraiya had a clone here to make it look like he was currently here. But in fact, he was somewhere else, preparing for the fight ahead. It wasn't known whether Orochimaru would resurrect Ashina here or if he had already done so and had him located elsewhere. Jiraiya's preparations would confirm it and his former student had a reverse summon seal on him whose pair was with the clone behind him.

"Yes," Ay said, some heat leaking into his voice, "Very interesting."

The Raikage arrived in Konoha yesterday, not enough time for them to talk about the Akatsuki. But they did talk about how there was a chance that some sort of attack may happen, which Ay was less than pleased about. If Hiruzen survived the attack, which he planned on if he had any say about it, a plan would need to be made to combat the Akatsuki to protect their Jinchuriki and prevent the shadowy organization from doing who knows what with Bijuu.

Only two more. Hiruzen thought, looking at the next fight.

---

Rin heard her and Sasuke's names get called to come down, filling her with both excitement and a little nervousness.

Naruto, being who he was, went to Sasuke and gave him some words of wisdom.

"Sasuke," Naruto said solemnly, "I won't lie. This may be the last time we speak, and I just want to say: You're still an emo." Her twin was shaking slightly from not laughing.

Sasuke scoffed, managing a roll of his eyes. "Thanks." He said sarcastically, "And I don't think Rin will kill me. She's not insane like you."

Naruto had the audacity to shrug as if he wasn't convinced, shooting Rin a smirk.

Rin also rolled her eyes, but walked over to her brother and hugged him, which he returned.

"Doesn't matter who wins," Naruto whispered in her ear, planting a kiss on her cheek, "You both worked hard and I'm proud of you."

Rin smiled and pulled away, giving her twin a gratitude filled look.

"Thanks, Naruto." She then headed down to the arena with Sasuke right next to her.

There was a combination of a lot of cheering, probably from seeing the last Uchiha fighting, as well as booing. The last was probably from her being there.

"I didn't realize Konoha hated me this much." Sasuke muttered, sounding genuinely angry.

Rin realized what Sasuke was doing, and she appreciated it. Both Sasuke and Hinata knew the villagers hated her and Naruto, while Sasuke dealt with being the object of pity and other mushy things that he didn't like.

The two reached the center and parted ways, getting some distance between them.

"Good luck, Sasuke." Rin said, adopting the taijutsu stance she learned from Anko.

Sasuke adjusted his footing and was in the position of the Uchiha Interceptor style, the boy cracking a smile.

"Good luck, Rin, you're going to need it." He blinked and his Sharingan activated, two tomoe in each eye.

"Are the fighters ready?" The proctor asked.

The two nodded, both tensed and ready to fight.

"Begin!"

Sasuke Shunshined directly at her instantly, throwing a punch at her head. She blocked it and returned a punch of her own, which Sasuke barely shifted to catch it no problem.

And so, the battle between the two younger siblings of two prodigies began.

Rin was already annoyed by how much better Sasuke was at taijutsu ever since they graduated from the academy. He was now as fast as she was and was much more agile than he used to be.

Sasuke's stupid Sharingan was doing what it usually did, picking apart her taijutsu pattern like it was nothing, and he was actually smirking after he blocked every single punch and kick she sent.

Growling, she pulsed chakra in her legs and jumped over Sasuke in a flip, swinging her leg at the back of his head. He ducked under it and avoided the hit, spinning around to keep fighting.

As Rin's feet hit the ground, she pulled her tanto out and breathed chakra infused air on the blade to lengthen the edge, before swinging it at Sasuke.

Sasuke drew a kunai and the two clashed, sparks coming from where their blades hit. Rin shoved forward and slashed at Sasuke's shoulder, followed by a stab at his side. He blocked the first and shifted to avoid the second, but it left a cut in his shirt.

Rin avoided his own stab, but their eyes met for a fraction of a second, something you don't do with an Uchiha in a fight.

Sasuke's eyes widened for a moment and Rin felt her entire equilibrium get turned upside down. She staggered forward and felt a punch hit her face, followed by a knee to her stomach. The impact was enough to send her to the ground.

Gasping in pain and shock, she swung her leg out blindly to keep Sasuke away from her. It seemed to work because she heard a grunt of pain and saw him back away.

Putting her hands in front of her, she flared her chakra and broke the Genjutsu, her balance no longer lopsided.

"Stupid eyes." She growled, nursing her bruised cheek.

"Don't look at them." Sasuke grinned, his entire body looking charged and full of energy.

Of course Kakashi-sensei taught him how to cast Genjutsu out of his eyes. I HATE the Sharingan. It's stupidly strong.

She ignored how being a Jinchuriki gave its own stupidly powerful abilities, being content with being irritated with Sasuke.

Deciding on a different tactic, Rin made the cross sign and spawned several Kage bunshin, ordering them to attack Sasuke.

The swarm of blondes attacked the Uchiha, who was doing his best to fight multiple opponents that actually knew how to fight in tandem.

Rin used the opportunity to pull out several kunai that had tags on them, which she then proceeded to fling at Sasuke with reckless abandon.

The Uchiha kicked the clone he was fighting away and Shunshined out of the blast radius, evading most of the explosion caused by the paper bombs. He turned around after he got about 50 yards away, staring at the crater where he'd just been.

To say Sasuke learned how to avoid getting locked in a chaotic brawl was an understatement. He'd seen how effective Naruto was at evading and moving around with the Shunshin, and Sasuke was better able to use the Jutsu because of his Sharingan. And once Weasel had started training them, Sasuke was much better at using the Shunshin.

"That the best you got?!" Sasuke shouted happily. He looked positively gleeful at avoiding her attack completely.

Rin grinned and blurred through hand seals, taking a deep breath.

Futon: Daitoppa.

An intense gust of wind was sent screeching towards Sasuke, tearing up the already abused ground further.

Sasuke went through multiple hand seals and sucked in air, expelling a ball of fire at her Jutsu.

I'm an idiot. Rin thought, realizing she just fired a wind jutsu at an Uchiha.

Making hand seals as fast as she could, she used the Hiding like a Mole jutsu and slipped underground, avoiding the extremely massive fireball that overwhelmed her jutsu and came flying towards her in a deafening roar.

She winced when the ambient heat seeped through the ground and made her scalp tingle and some sweat to break out on her face. She sifted around the Earth as best as she could, but was annoyingly slower than Kakashi, and popped out of the ground, her gaze zoning in on Sasuke.

The aforementioned boy had moved away from where he was at and was looking around for her, finally noticing her.

Already, the cheering was at a massive crescendo, the crowd obviously worked up from seeing Ninjutsu used in a flashy way by the 'Last Uchiha'.

Sasuke smirked and made 2 hand seals, seeming to disappear in an afterimage indicative of a Shunshin.

The cousin of Shisui of the Body flicker appeared in front of her, swinging a roundhouse kick at her face.

She threw her arm up to stop it, but the hit still staggered her from the impact. Sasuke started attacking more vigorously and she barely held off his attacks, until she felt a punch strike her face, making her ears ring. Rin managed to catch one of his following punches, causing Sasuke to lash out with his left arm.

His dominant arm was also caught by her right hand, which was her dominant, and she ignored the stinging in her palm to hold Sasuke still, the two trying to overpower the other.

---

He is good. Itachi thought to himself, disguised as a Konoha Chunin. Not as good as Shisui or I at that age. But he is good.

Itachi was on his own here. Kisame was outside of the stadium, prepared for when the attack started, even if they didn't know when.

Kisame had spotted the Jinchuriki of the Yonbi when he had finally come out of camping out in the secret underground meeting place of the Uchiha and the two Akatsuki members decided Roshi would be the best to ambush and capture.

He was obviously here as a spy, or his relationship with Iwa was irreparably compromised, and it meant he wasn't going to have support. If it was to spy, Iwa could very well prepare for war and try and rope in other villages to invade Konoha. If the losses suffered by Konoha in the surprise attack we're large enough, that is.

The easy solution to that would be to exterminate any enemies of Konoha with extreme prejudice before they can cause damage.

But back to Roshi's motive for being here.

If it was from Roshi no longer being loyal and was watching the exams to thumb his nose to his home village, then Iwa probably didn't know he was here yet.

But he didn't care as much about that. Itachi cared about seeing the fruits of his labor in helping his little brother and one of Konoha's Jinchuriki. At least, for once, he felt that he created something for the village instead of destroying.

He watched as the two grappled, and Sasuke said something that had Rin's face redden, before his brother forced their interlocked fingers to twist into a hand seal.

Impressive. Itachi thought, smirking at the intelligent thought behind using another's hand for a jutsu. Did he think of that himself? Yes, he must have.

Although far from arrogant, Itachi wasn't blind to the pattern of the Uchiha producing extremely gifted and intelligent Shinobi, with Sasuke being the latest.

My little brother, you may be. But you are not foolish.

---

Rin gritted her teeth as she tried to overpower Sasuke, the task easier said than done.

Sasuke had managed to get his left hand out of her vice grip, but still had their hands locked together. A kick from her was avoided by him as he kicked back at her, the display looking rather childish.

They continued trying to kick each other as they kept grappling, and Rin started getting pissed.

"Let go, Sasuke." She gritted out, kicking at his shin and making contact finally.

Sasuke groaned in pain, but his mouth widened in a smile.

"You look pretty when you're angry." He smiled, trying to look into her eyes.

Rin ended up hesitating for a moment and loosened her grip, which Sasuke managed to untangle their fingers and he used chakra to stick his finger tips to hers, twisting both their hands.

She felt lightning chakra, having been extremely familiar with being shocked by Naruto constantly in sparring, dance up her arm and made half her body spasm.

The electric shock was from some type of D-rank Raiton Jutsu that charged lightning into your hands to shock people, and Sasuke just used it one her.

The slight opening let him kick her in the stomach to push her away, followed by several punches that got through, causing her to yell and punch wildly at him. Sasuke jumped over her and landed a kick to the back of her head, sending her face first into the ground.

Spitting out some dirt that got in her mouth, Rin rolled to the side instinctively and heard Sasuke foot crash into the ground right where her head was.

Rin rolled further to the side and pushed her legs out with the momentum to get up quickly. She then backpedaled and tried to ignore the tingling in her dominant arm from being shocked.

The two stared at each other and Rin inspected Sasuke without looking at his Sharingan.

A thin sheen of sweat covered his face, a bruise on his cheek from where she had hit him. His hair was noticably tussled, but he still looked perfectly fine.

She would have felt fine, if not for her arm twitching and her hair felt weird.

She frowned when Sasuke starting smirking in a playful manner.

"That won't work a second time, Sasuke." She growled, annoyed that something as stupid as that actually threw her off.

"Friends say nice things about friends." Sasuke kept smirking, identical to how Naruto smirked when he messed with people.

Did Sasuke copy Naruto's smirk with his Sharingan? She thought incredulously, refusing to believe that Sasuke would use his oh so precious dojutsu for something so juvenile.

Actually, Sasuke doing that was perfectly reasonable for how much Sasuke was the target of Naruto's specific brand of stupidity.

Refocusing on her teammate and friend, Rin noticed him adjusting his stance.

"Don't tell me you're already tired, Sasuke," She kept her hands up in case he tried something, but she could tell he noticed how much her arm was shaking.

Keep him talking until Mr fox helps speed up fixing the twitching. She thought, poking at the Kyuubi's chakra in the same way Naruto taught her to in order to speak with the fox.

"You're not mopping the floor with him," The Kyuubi scolded her, "Your brother is much better. At least I'll enjoy my 1 tailed sibling's Jinchuriki getting torn to pieces."

Excuse me for not being able to kick him like a can when I've been training with him non-stop for a month. She glared at the fox, her own face probably twisting into a scowl.

The fox scoffed. "Excuses."

I don't have a Sharingan, furball!

"Which would only be slightly worse than if you or your redheaded litter member had a verbal tick like your mother. Minato-kun, you're so handsome, 'ttebane!"

Rin hated when the fox quoted things her parents said, especially that verbal tic part. Naruto laughed about it and said he was glad that neither of them inherited it, but Rin thought it seemed endearing.

"Quit thinking," The fox instructed, "Put the poultry in its place."

Naruto told you to say that. Rin accused with a smile, cutting the connection.

The whole conversation happened much faster in real-time than how she perceived it, something about how the speed of the mind being different from reality.

Sasuke had just started to speak when she zoned back in.

"- don't need to be from your clan to outlast you." Sasuke said, pulling a new kunai out, "I'm an Uchiha. And it's up to me to show which clan is better."

Rin cracked a smile and had her tanto out in her right hand, the tingling almost gone.

The dull roar of the crowd was ignored, the two seeming to be in their own world.

"You're not an Uchiha." Uzumaki Rin smiled widely, "You're my punching bag. Especially your nose."

Sasuke threw the kunai, followed by several shuriken. Rin ducked under the kunai and twirled in a spin as she jumped over the kunai, avoiding them entirely. She thought she felt something brush against her, but thought nothing of it.

She swung at Sasuke with her blade and he slid under the attack aimed at his chest, driving a fist towards her ribs. She twisted away from it and swung her left arm to bat his arm aside, bringing her right hand, with her knife, down towards him.

Another kunai was in Sasuke's hand already and he lifted it in front of him, catching the tip of her blade on the flat end of his. The soft creaking of the metal scraping was the only thing she could hear other than the blood rushing in her ears and her and Sasuke's breathing.

They broke away and Sasuke yanked with his right arm for no reason, causing Rin to pause for a moment.

The lack of understanding ended when her leg jerked forward and she felt something dig into her calf. She yelled as her left leg gave out and she fell on her face once again, trying to get back up.

Sasuke rushed towards her and practically dove on top of her, trying to get his kunai passed her guard and hold it to her throat to win the fight. Fortunately, Rin got her tanto up and locked the two together just as it almost pressed against her skin.

Her right knee was between her and the ground and Sasuke was on top of her, trying to force her to submit.

She heard him stifling a grunt of exertion as he tried to push the kunai closer, but she kept the stalemate.

She lifted her left arm to try and push his away, but he seemed to let his leg collapse and wrapped it around the crook of her arm, jerking his weight backwards so she was now on top of him with her back to him.

Rin started panicking as two of her limbs were trapped by Sasuke's wire and his leg, while her other arm was in a blade lock with his.

She practically was trapped, and she hated it.

Sasuke, now that she wasn't in a position to kick at him, dropped the wire with his right hand and started pressing his hand against his other hand pushing his kunai closer to her neck.

"I win." He whispered in her ear, the triumph in his voice clearly audible.

I will not lose! Rin screamed in her mind, her arm trembling in exertion.

"I finally beat you in taijutsu," Sasuke's voice was practically shaking in excitement, "Without you breaking my nose."

Rin's arm was now shaking painfully, her breath faint as her eyes crossed from trying to look at the kunai.

"I'm better now." Sasuke whispered, pushing as hard as he could. "Who's the punching bag now?"

Steeling herself, Rin did something that shocked everybody in the crowd that wasn't named Uzumaki Naruto and Sarutobi Hiruzen.

She leaned forward and bit Sasuke.

Sasuke registered that Rin had sunk her teeth into his upper forearm and starting screaming bloody murder, making her ears ring from his face practically pressed against hers and he rolled with her to the left to get her teeth off his arm.

Rin bit harder involuntarily when Sasuke was yelling expletives right next to her, but his arm finally stopped pressing towards her throat. She let go and drove her now freed elbow into his gut and rolled away, standing up unsteadily.

Sasuke had a wrathful expression as he looked at the bite mark on his arm, four small divots where her canines bit into him were bleeding slightly.

Rin spat down at the ground, trying to get the taste of sweat out of her mouth.

"What is it about biting that you keep doing it to me?!" Sasuke demanded, aggravated by her doing something so animalistic.

"Don't shock me!" She shot back, trying to rotate her elbow to get the kink out of the joint.

"You bit me and you bit Naruto before." He said irritably, wiping the bite with his sleeve.

"I only bite people I like." Rin said sarcastically, remembering the ANBU she bit when she was six.

It was Bear. She recognized him when she was visiting Karin the last couple weeks and she had apologize, which he waved off as not a big deal. So, technically, Rin Bear, who she liked, Naruto, her twin, and Sasuke, her teammate and friend, were all liked by her.

"You bit me twice." Sasuke said irritably, "So I guess you love me." He added with just as much bite as her comment had been.

"Shut up." Rin grumbled, annoyed by him throwing that at her, "You had me pinned and I wasn't going to concede. So deal with it."

Sasuke glanced down at his arm, then back to her.

"I am going to get a rabies shot after I win." He said flatly, fighting the urge to scratch the bite.

Rin narrowed her eyes at the comment.

"I'm not an animal, Sasuke!"

Sasuke simply raised his arm and his brow in a 'Really?' expression.

"And I'm going to win!" She shouted, making several more Kage bunshin.

Sasuke had a good chance of beating her if she kept fighting him at close range. She hated that he was now able actually hurt her in taijutsu. She'd been better almost the entire time at the academy and the first several months of being part of Team 7. But his Sharingan basically made him a hard counter to her in taijutsu.

She ordered her clones to rush towards him, two of them Henging as kunai right next to her.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he rushed towards the clones, predicting their pattern of attack and flipping over one without issue, making multiple hand seals.

Sasuke breathed out really thick flames that kicked up a cloud of ash around him, obscuring him from her sight.

It evidently didn't impede Sasuke from seeing chakra because he was taking down her clones without issue as they scrambled to react.

She winced when she got the feedback of Sasuke's foot being smashed into her face, while another was hit with a Genjutsu that made her feel like she was on fire.

Rin flung the Henged kunai and aimed them where she hoped Sasuke was.

Mid flight, the clones dropped the Henge and exploded, dissipating the ash cloud somewhat.

She could now see his silhouette and notice that he was fighting two of her clones at the same time.

Grinning at the opening, she made the bird hand seal and opened her mouth.

Futon: Air Bullet.

She pumped more chakra in it than normal to hopefully blast away the ash and send Sasuke flying.

It worked, but she didn't expect the coughing fit to follow after she sent several compressed balls of air at the Uchiha.

Rin got the feedback from her clone getting popped by one of the air pockets right as she heard Sasuke yelp in shock, his body being ragdolled out of the ash cloud.

Rin would need to ask where he learned that jutsu. It looked useful and she was already making progress on her fire release. Naruto didn't get to be the only one to have fun being able to hide in the mist he'd make.

Rin sprinted at full speed towards Sasuke's downed form and leaped forward, bringing her foot down on Sasuke's shoulder.

'Sasuke' vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto! Rin shouted internally, If I lose because you taught Sasuke how to make Kage bunshin, I'm going to be very upset.

Rin wheeled around and was met by Sasuke rushing out of the diminished ash cloud, his hands moving in a rapid movement of signs.

Kaiton: Hosenka no Jutsu.

Hinata could use this jutsu, but Sasuke was disturbingly better at Fire release than both female members of Team 7 combined. Fire just seemed natural to an Uchiha.

Rin hastily avoided the balls of fire that came careening towards her, being guided by the boy's command.

Rin scrambled to grab a seal tag that Naruto had designed that she copied, finally getting it loose as two of the fireballs she couldn't avoid quickly approached her.

The tag went flying in front of her and she made a hand seal to activate it, a rushing sound indicating it worked.

Her other hand flung another tag, but she didn't activate it.

The first tag did its job and absorbed the two fireballs, saving her from igniting her clothes and burning her.

Rin didn't know where Sasuke was precisely, but she used another Futon: Daitoppa to flush him out, blowing the air behind her as she twisted.

Not wanting to be blind, she made several more Kage bunshin and had two stay beside her while the others fought Sasuke.

"He's starting to slow down some." One of her clones said, "I'll warn you if he comes towards us."

Rin finally understood 100% why Naruto hated Genjutsu. You couldn't trust your own senses and you were pretty much blind to reality.

"Hit the deck!" Her clone shouted, sending a wind jutsu in front of her.

Rin sank into the ground again as she felt her hair stand on end from static in the air, meaning Sasuke had fired a Raiton Jutsu at her.

I. Hate. Lightning! She growled internally. Getting shocked hurt.

Rin shifted around in the ground and tried to feel for where her remaining bunshin were. She had counted 3 remaining and she could tell Sasuke had probably got an opening to fire at her before he re-engaged her bunshin.

Eventually, she heard the sound of metal clashing right above her she pulled a low yield exploding out of her pocket and lifted her arm out of the surface, letting go and sinking into the ground again. She detonated the tag and promptly shot out of the ground, her jaw tightening when the feedback of her bunshin blowing up came back.

Sasuke's shorts were smoking and he looked worse for wear, his hair a total mess and his face was covered in soot and sweat.

She rushed forward and she saw how his eyes tracked her movement, but his body wasn't responding fast enough.

That must suck to see someone coming at you and not be fast enough. She thought, jumping to plant her hands on the top of Sasuke's head and smashing her right knee into the side of his head.

The Uchiha heir almost fell from the jarring hit, his arms now tucked towards his face to protect himself.

Now, Sasuke had a gash where her knee hit, blood flowing freely from it.

Rin became all too aware how much this fight had been thrilling to her. This wasn't like how she and Naruto fought, where he could beat her into the ground if he went all out, or Hinata, who couldn't hold up to constant hits. Sasuke was an equal. A victory against him would be earned with all of her own hard work and dedication.

This is my win!

Rin gave a war cry and charged at Sasuke, pulling her tanto out and swinging at him. Sasuke jabbed his left fist out to check the strike, but didn't press to counter. Rin mixed together a punch to his head, a knee to his gut, and and an attempt to hit the cut on his brow.

Sasuke kept his guard up and stopped everything but the hit aimed at his brow. He simply tilted his head downward and her fist struck his Hitai-ate, something popping in her hand.

Rin bit back a curse as she backed up, her face turning green when she looked at her hand. Even Sasuke didn't move, his normally pale complexion was flushed from exertion, but it was paling as he looked at her hand.

"It's not supposed to be bent that way." She gasped, trying to fight nausea at the sight of her ring finger being bent crooked.

"I'll give you a second." Sasuke said, backing away.

Rin inhaled and exhaled quickly, doing it like she was ripping off a band-aid. She grabbed the digit with her off hand and bent it back in place, the joint popping audibly. She couldn't bite back the whimper of pain, but the pain subsided seconds later as any damage healed.

Note to self. Don't aim for the Hitai-ate when punching.

Rin turned to Sasuke and he signaled her that he was ready and the two started again.

Sasuke kept on defending himself, likely from not wanting another hit to his face to block his vision. Rin thought it was too good to be true when Sasuke's arms were out of position finally, his hands shifting around strangely, but she still pivoted to her left side and side kicked Sasuke, knocking him back.

Turns out, Sasuke hadn't been doing it for no reason. He'd evidently managed to sneak in a half seal or a normal hand seal, because the moment her foot struck his stomach, a small ball of fire struck her dead center.

Rin freaked out, slapping her chest to put the fire out rather forcefully, but she did get it put out.

She sighed in relief and prepared to fight Sasuke again, but her entire body and vision went haywire.

She hated whoever invented Genjutsu, she decided. Her vision was like a fever dream induced kaleidoscope and her hearing was targeted again to mess with her balance.

Sasuke had taken advantage of the cover the fire gave him to hit her with a Genjutsu, and she was struggling to focus through the near nauseating feeling to flare her chakra.

She finally broke it and she saw Sasuke just a couple feet in front of her, his fist aimed at her face. Rin lifted her arm and almost lazily prepared to block it, but the punch seemed to ghost right through her and she felt something hit the side of her face so hard that she couldn't even see straight.

The pain caused her vision to swim and what she thought was Sasuke shifted into a double mirage, with the real Sasuke having his leg up like he'd just kicked her. Which it turns out, he did.

Genjutsu. Genjutsu. More Genjutsu! Rin screamed angrily, trying to regain her footing.

Rin tried to look for the tag she'd planned on trapping Sasuke with, but her irritating teammate was giving her no room to get to it.

Sasuke lashed out with another kick to her face, but she leaned forward to get her head out of the way and jabbed at Sasuke's ribs. The boy blocked the hit like he predicted it and backhanded her, lunging forward with what looked to be his last remaining kunai.

Rin threw her arms up and they clashed together, her back leg holding most of her weight as they grappled once again.

Rin shut her eyes as Sasuke leaned his head towards her, obviously trying to trap her in another Genjutsu.

"Stop. Putting. Me. In. Genjutsu." She gritted out, the two in a stalemate.

Rin had enough of getting kicked around by Sasuke and concentrated on her anger and frustration, trying to pull on a tiny amount of the Kyuubi's chakra.

She felt renewed strength fill her arms and she opened her eyes, baring her teeth at Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise and Rin shoved him away, running towards the tag that took her close to an hour to make during her time off.

She ran like she was trying to get her tanto that was on the ground where she and Sasuke had been on the ground, and conventionally 'tripped' right as she got passed the tag.

Sasuke predictably pursued her, trying to finish the fight.

Rin turned and looked up at him, hopefully looking realistically fearful of losing.

Sasuke pointed his kunai just a foot away from her face, a triumphant grin on his face.

"I. Win." He said, the crowd absolutely roaring from the most entertaining fight so far.

Rin didn't say anything, remaining silent.

"You need to say you concede, Rin." Sasuke said, "I don't want to knock you out with a Genjutsu."

Rin started laughing, looking directly into Sasuke's eyes in challenge.

"I think you should be the one conceding." She flicked her hand to make a half seal, activating the tag that was right behind Sasuke's left heel.

Black lines appeared all across his body that shifted to red for a moment as they spread up his body, freezing him in place.

"Grn." Sasuke barely managed to say, unable to move no matter how hard he tried.

"I knew you would never be stupid enough to walk into a trap I made with seals," Rin said, standing up and dusting herself off, "But that tag wasn't a seal cluster. It's just one tag, and boy was it hard to make."

Her grandfather had multiple different seal designs that Uzumaki Mito had modified, including what she had just used. It was designed to restrain somebody and made it difficult to break out because of how it had a chakra loop feeding into it to prevent someone that wasn't Kage level from flaring their chakra to break it. She suspected it could keep Kakashi possibly trapped, let alone Sasuke.

She looked at Sasuke and saw how his eyes were following her, even as she took the kunai from his hand.

"You'll need to fix that cut on your eyebrow," She pointed at his left eye, "Hinata might need to seal it shut."

A sizable cut in Sasuke's brow was slowly leaking blood and had already accumulated under his eye, almost making it look like his eye was bleeding.

"So, Sasuke," She grinned triumphantly, pointing the kunai at him now, "Do you concede?"

Sasuke eyes were frantic and he tried to break out, his lip slightly curling in anger.

Rin glanced at the proctor, who looked ready to call it in her favour soon.

She turned back to Sasuke when she almost visibly saw his chakra flare, the instinct to look into his eyes too much to resist.

She looked at his eyes and thought she blinked, thinking sweat had gotten into her eyes because they looked different.

Whatever kind of visual Genjutsu Sasuke hit her with felt much more potent and all her senses seemed to turn inside out, causing her to fall over from her legs giving out.

---

Sasuke blinked as Rin's eyes rolled back and she fell over right next to him, his kunai that she held clattering to the ground.

Sasuke hissed in pain as his eyes were throbbing, especially the left one. A combination of sweat and blood had to be why it was burning horribly. It was like when Naruto coughed blood into his eye and he woke up.

I hate Fuinjutsu. He growled internally, trying to get his muscles to move. He didn't know how long Rin would be out of it. He'd just grabbed ahold of his anger at being on the edge of defeat and practically willed Rin to stop. Evidently, his Sharingan activated and did a type of Genjutsu on her that knocked her out, which he wasn't going to complain about.

Kami, my eyes. He cursed, not being able to get the sweat out of them.

He managed to look at the proctor, who was extremely confused by no clear winner being visible. The crowd had gotten silent and seemed to be waiting with baited breath on what the results would be.

After another minute, the proctor made an announcement.

"Neither contestant is able to continue. The match is ruled a tie!"

No! Sasuke thought angrily, still trying to flex his limbs. I'd rather lose than it be a stupid tie.

The reason was made apparent when he recognized Naruto's hyena cackle laugh from behind him, the sound a reminder of how he and Rin were going to get tormented relentlessly by their Sensei, Naruto, and maybe even Hinata.

The proctor approached Rin and cast a type of Genjutsu on her to invade her chakra network to disrupt the current Genjutsu on her. Rin stirred slightly, moaning something unintelligible. She then abruptly opened her eyes and kicked her leg out, her foot hitting Sasuke's lower shin.

Sasuke almost bit his tongue bloody from Rin waking up and kicking him first thing.

"No," Rin shouted, at the proctor next to her, "He's restrained! I didn't lose. I do not give up!"

"It was ruled a tie." The proctor said flatly, covering his mouth as he coughed.

Rin practically squeaked at the answer.

"What?" She asked weakly, sounding totally lost.

"Neither of you were able to continue. It was ruled a tie."

"No!" Rin shouted, "I'll forfeit before I accept a tie," She looked panicked at the thought. "Okay. Okay. I forfeit," She said desperately. "Happy?"

"Too late." The proctor turned to leave, "And remove whatever that tag is off the Uchiha kid. You need to get out of the arena for the next match."

Rin turned to Sasuke, swearing under her breath constantly as she pulled the tag off of him.

The itching feeling all over his body ceased and he almost fell forward in surprise, but Rin held him hope so he didn't fall on her.

"I hate you." She muttered, poking at his forehead, "Your stupid eyes made us tie."

"I tried to win," Sasuke said tightly, grabbing the bottom of his shirt to rub the sweat and blood from his eye. "Ah," He sighed, "That's better."

Rin glared at him and poked his temple, causing him to flinch.

"Stop poking me." He frowned, the two taking their time walking to their teammates and friends.

"It's your fault that Naruto and Bakakashi are going to be annoying." Rin said coolly.

"Blame your parents for Naruto, not me." Sasuke said flatly, "And you looked into my eyes. What does everybody say about looking into an Uchiha's eyes."

"Spit in 'em?" Rin asked innocently, causing Sasuke to return the favor and poked her in the forehead.

"I will never talk to you again if you ever do that." Sasuke looked straight at her, her eyes alight with mirth.

"Okay." She then acted she was hocking a loogie, leaning towards him. Sasuke pushed her away and trudged towards everyone else, muttering under his breath about troublesome blondes.

---

"Extremely impressive performance for two genin." Rasa said, a strange lilt in his voice, "Such speed from the Uchiha and the seal knowledge of the girl is far better than that of a Genin."

Hiruzen paid little mind to the man, instead focusing on the Raikage and his brother. Thankfully, Rin had not used the Rasengan. That would have made things rather awkward when Ay was here in person instead of hearing it. The possibility of an alliance was still precarious, and the prospect of the Yellow Flash having twins who were descended from Uzumaki Ashina and Jinchuriki was something he'd hope to delay until after a more solid alliance was cemented.

This final fight was going to be something unseen among prospective Chunin. This would be brutal by elite Jonin standards, let alone a Chunin promotion.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen had faith in Naruto. Naruto reminded him of many people, but right now, more than anyone else, he was reminded of himself as a young boy being given extra training from the Kami no Shinobi. He remembered thriving in the environment that his first Sensei had created, even when Senju Tobirama was known as a harsh and unyielding, although fair, taskmaster. But he had then thrived under the tutelage of Senju Hashirama as well.

Hiruzen planned to retire after this invasion. He was ready. Jiraiya or Tsunade could take over for a few years and Naruto could take over and probably be in office longer than he was.

He held firm to that hope as he steeled himself in preparation for probably the most heart wrenching fight he'd ever faced.

---

The fight between Sasuke and Rin could not have gone any better for me as a viewer. Sasuke had progressed a lot, and Rin was noticably better at forming plans in using her Ninjutsu to take on Sasuke. She'd need to work on breaking out of Genjutsu, because that was what ended up hurting her multiple times.

Sasuke, on the other hand, should have kept his distance when Rin was keeping up in taijutsu. She wouldn't simply try the same thing over and over again unless she planned to lull you into a pattern to be exploited.

Overall, I was happy at how they both did, but I was ecstatic at the result.

They tied.

Kakashi had made his way to me, having been rather quiet during the fights.

"Your sister and my student are such a disappointment," He said with a shake of his head, "But at least Hinata won hers. She's my favourite now."

Hinata overheard us and only reacted with a sigh and a shake of her head, resigned to listening to Kakashi and me messing with her two teammates.

Speaking of the two babies of their families, they got to us and both climbed up the wall with chakra, glaring at me already.

"I don't want to hear it, Naruto." Rin said irritably, ""Give me my chair, please." She said in English.

"Chairs are for winners." I said, smirking when Rin predictably scowled. I pulled out a storage scroll and pulsed some chakra into it, depositing a chair with a small puff of smoke.

Rin rushed towards it before Sasuke could, plopping right down immediately.

I looked at Sasuke and noticed his eyes looked bloodshot and he was squinting slightly.

"Did you get blood in your eyes again?" I asked, leaning to his right to look over his shoulder to see when I was going to be called down to fight.

"I don't know," Sasuke answered, "It's almost like how they hurt after I had your blood all over my face." He lowered his voice at the last part.

I hummed in thought, turning to Hinata.

"Hinata," I asked kindly, getting her attention, "Can you check Sasuke's eyes? He might have irritated them."

Hinata nodded and walked over to Sasuke, inspecting his left eye, which looked more bloodshot.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" I heard my name be called, a cold feeling washing over me.

I was scared. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to block Gaara's connection to Shukaku and I'd be forced to kill him to protect Konoha.

I don't want this burden. I thought. I didn't want to do this, even if I would follow through if need be.

As I started walking towards the edge, Kakashi stepped towards me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You can do this," He whispered to me, "Jiraiya told me what you plan to do. You're a good person. You have a soul."

I smiled gratefully at him. Kakashi, for all his faults, was a truly decent human being.

"But I don't want you dying. You pick you over him. But try to not get to that point. Got it?"

"Yes." I replied, stepping forward as Kakashi let go of my shoulder.

I jumped down for effect, pushing some chakra into my legs to reinforce my joints a little. My feet hit the ground and I bent my knees slightly, closing my eyes as I used my sensing to feel the flow of chakra from thousands of people packed together.

The civilians were easily picked out, being very dim compared to Shinobi. I walked towards the center with my eyes still closed, smiling as I felt different signatures.

Whoever was the bodyguard for the 'Kazekage' had me on edge. I kept struggling to discern where his chakra began and where my own sensing started. It was like he was draping himself in the background to dim his presence.

There were two other signatures in the stadium that seemed familiar, but I couldn't tell who they were. It was like they were in the corner of my mind.

Opening my eyes, I watched as Gaara slowly walked towards me, Killing Intent leaking from him.

Yes, or no, Fox. I thought forcefully. Tell me the Ichibi's name.

"Why?" Kurama asked flatly, unamused by the question I'd asked him.

Because I don't want to kill Gaara, and calling the Ichibi by name might make him hesitate and rethink that the voice in his head is his mother.

Kurama huffed loudly and growled softly at the end of his exhale.

"Shukaku. Now stop asking about my name. I gave you the tanuki's."

Thank you. I said, focusing on Gaara now.

"I've been waiting for you, Uzumaki," Gaara said hungrily, his green eyes wide in anticipation, "My mother says you will be a worthy sacrifice. You will prove my existence!"

I saw Hayate get a little antsy at the bloodlust coming from Gaara and I tried to give him an apologetic look when I flared my chakra and my Killing Intent in retaliation.

"Did the voice in your head tell you about me?" I asked sweetly, grabbing his complete attention, "Did that deliciously sweet voice tell you that nobody will care about you, that everybody wants to kill you, and that you must kill anyone who you believe is trying to kill you?" I stated practically Gaara's young childhood.

"That voice isn't your mother," I said sharply, "That's the tailed beast sealed in you speaking. And it's name is Shukaku."

Gaara somehow became even more feral looking, his chakra spasming as more of Shukaku's influence was affecting him.

"You are trying to deceive me," He accused, "You will not make me turn on my mother. You will not take her from me!"

"You have allowed Shukaku to twist your mind into something terrible," I said, my chakra swirling in my tenketsu in preparation for what was fast approaching, "I more than anyone would know how a Bijuu tries to twist your thoughts."

Gaara looked stunned by what I just said, but it quickly vanished back into anticipation.

"You don't understand me. I had to be strong to survive."

Hayate backed even further away and shouted for us to get ready.

"I was hated and scorned by others when I was young. It's not only hair colour that we share. You have one tail sealed in you." I said, pulling out my sword and pointing my index and middle fingers on my off hand at him, with my sword arm pulled back and pointing my blade directly at him. I was peripherally aware of two things in my sensing that flared slightly.

"And I have 9."

"Begin!"

---

END CHAPTER.

And that's a wrap for the second longest chapter I've written. I couldn't bring myself to paraphrase any of the fights because they centered around the core characters that I've written, even if it made the chapter longer. If I included the Naruto/Gaara fight, this would have been close to 30k words. This is basically part one of the Crush arc and it only gets more crazy with each chapter.

Anyway, here's the chapter and I hope you all have a great day.

Raging..